TRUTH 

NOT LEGEND 

REASON 

NOT SUPERSTITION 



Lewis B. Seltzer 




Glass _ 

Book ^__ 

Copyright^? 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Truth 
Not Legend 

Reason 
Not Superstition 

Bp Louis B. Seltzer 



BOSTON 

THE ROXBURGH PUBLISHING CO. 

INCORPORATED 



1* 



J3^ 1 ' 



Copyrighted 1912 
By Louis B. Seltzer 
All Rights Reserved 



£CLA320873 



CHAPTER I 

In any discussion having to do with the 
exploitation of newly discovered or but half 
acknowledged truths, or with the demolition 
of errors long established, and whose origin 
antedates the emancipation of the human 
mind from the fetters of the ignorance and 
superstition essential to the control of a 
bigoted and tolerant church, two fundamental 
principles must be recognized. 

First: — The accuracy of all statements made, 
a logical sequence in the presentation of the 
arguments, illustrations both apt and con- 
vincing, and the establishing of a heart interest 
on the part of the readers, which interest can 
only be created by their conviction of an 
absolute belief in his utterances on the author's 
part. In other words, having the argument, 
its power to convince, and to convert, must 
always remain in exact ratio to the sincerity 
with which it is presented. 

Secondly: — Granting the correctness of the 
5 



Truth Not Legend, 

premises on which the argument is founded, 
are the truths and theories advanced helpful 
or inimical to those accepting them? Will 
their adoption tend to the uplifting of human 
kind or to its greater uneasiness and despair? 
Does the world need and is it ready for the 
change? 

Bearing always in mind these requirements 
as essential to the successful advocation of the 
suggestions hereinafter advanced, we may 
proceed with a reasonable hope of establishing 
in the reader's mind an interest sufficiently 
strong to induce his ultimate co-operation with 
us in our progress toward a higher, broader 
and unfettered human life. 

We have entered a new era. The age of 
superstition, of faith in traditions and legends, 
is rapidly passing away. Only those whom 
the church is able to hold in ignorance, can 
be deceived. There are thousands of people 
today, not necessarily college graduates, who 
cannot be deceived. They read and study for 
themselves; and to conceive of a human being 
as ever having been God, or of God as ever 
having been a human being, is to them a mental 
condition bordering on the irresponsible. 
There are thousands of good people, many 

6 



Reason A T ot Superstition 

nominal church members and assuredly not 
atheists, who believe in an omnipotent, supreme 
Ruler, but do not fear Him, do not worship 
Him, and have no hope for a future life, neither 
do they credit the promise of a future reward 
for the good, nor an eternal punishment for 
the wicked; because they cannot believe that 
the Bible is God's word. 

What we need — we, who believe as these 
people do — is a church, a clergy, that will 
preach the truth, that there is no revealed 
word of God, but that there is a just God who 
will reward the good, and punish the wicked; 
a church that will accept the conscience as the 
word of God, and the Bible as the will of God, 
and Jesus as our example for the proper mode 
of life for a Son of God to lead, the brotherhood 
of the human family, and not of a creed, or of a 
people. This is the kind of church we need 
to guide the thinkers, the liberal minded, and 
keep them in the path of rectitude. 

As an illustration, let us consider the argu- 
ments and opinions of a common man, a 
miner, a toiler in the bowels of the earth. 
There came to Preston No. 5, some time during 
the eightys of the last century, two young 
men who started to work one of the breasts 

7 



Truth Not Legend 

in the mine. The taller of the two was an 
expert miner, the other was his helper. The 
helper was one of the most highly educated 
men that ever came to this place. He brought 
with him a fine library and numerous manu- 
scripts of his own composition. Yet there 
was something very mysterious about this 
person. Every one coming in contact with 
him realized this. They watched him where- 
ever he was and many were heard to say, 
"Wait and see, you will find that there is 
something unusual about that person. " He 
was always ready for an argument, and every 
afternoon as the miners gathered at the bot- 
tom after the day's work and while waiting for 
a car to be hoisted to the surface, they would 
ask him to explain how mining should be 
conducted scientifically, and often he would 
argue with them on various subjects. Monday 
was always a great day for argument on relig- 
ion. After having been to church on Sunday, 
and listened to the sermon, there was always 
something to criticize. There was none 
worse on religion than myself. I had a big 
opinion of my knowledge on this subject and 
indeed was pretty well booked on the Bible, 
but soon learned how little I knew. 

8 



CHAPTER II 

The following was not his first argument, 
but it was the first that I took down. It was 
started by some one saying: "I heard the best 
damned sermon yesterday I ever heard/' 

"What was the subject? What was it all 
about?" 

"I have forgotten the text, but the theme 
of the sermon was unbelief." 

"How can you be a church member, or a 
christian and use profanity? No man should 
be profane and least of all a christian. While 
I am an infidel, I yet claim to be a christian 
and would never think of permitting myself to 
use such vulgarity." 

" An infidel christian, is that what is called a 
paradox?" 

" Let it be what you choose to call it. I 
know that profanity and Christianity do not 
mix." 

" But an infidel denies that there is a God, 
and therefore cannot be a christian." 

9 



Truth Not Legend, 

" The atheist does not believe there is a God, 
but an infidel does, though he does not believe 
that the Bible is God's word. The existence 
of God is to me indubitable." 

" In your opinion, what will God appear to 
us to be like when we get to see him — when we 
get to Heaven?" 

"How can God be visible to us? God is 
everywhere, and it is impossible for him to be 
at one spot a visible being, and at the same 
time be everywhere." 

"But is it not the opinion of almost all 
intelligent people, that we will see him after 
our death?" 

" If we have more than one God we may see 
one or more." 

" But we claim to have but one God and He 
a spirit everywhere present." 

" The Jews have but one God, but He is the 
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and as is 
remarked, a person dwelling in a City having 
Golden Streets and Jasper Walls." 

"The Jews have always been fond of gold." 

" Yes, they have always been money getters, 
yet they took time to study their relationship 
to God." 

"The Jews were monotheists, but they did 
10 



Reason Not Superstition 

not understand it, for to them God did make 
Himself visible; He appeared to Adam, Enoch, 
Moses, Elihja and others, and yet the Bible 
says, no man can see God and live." 

"The Bible would then contradict it- 
self?" 

"It certainly does, not only here, but in 
different places. The Jews were God's chosen 
people, and He their God only, and not of 
other peoples/ 7 

"So you think the Jews thought that God 
had no use for the Gentiles? It appears to 
have been so, and that shows how ignorant 
they were at that time." 

"But how much more intelligent are we? 
We believe that God was a human being at one 
time, or that a human being was God at one 
time. We believe that Jesus, a Jew, was God 
when He lived. But in fact, the christians 
have three Gods. God the Father, God the 
Son, and God the Spirit." 

"If Jesus was not God, he was the Son of 
God." 

"Yes, and so are we the Sons of God. 
Jesus was perhaps the most humane and sym- 
pathetic, and in every way one of the best men 
that ever lived, but it is too simple, too childish, 
11 



Truth Not Legend 

too foolish to imagine that he was the Supreme 

i Ruler of the Universe." 

" But the Bible asserts that he was, and that 
He was the Son of God." 

"I know it does, and it seems to me very 
absurd, it seems to me an impossibility. He 
must have been his own father, but He does 
not claim to have been God, which I am sure 
He would have done if He had thought so." 

At this time a car was waiting for us and we 
went home. Arguments like the foregoing 
were an almost daily occurrence; not always 
on the same subject, not always on the Bible, 
but on mining, on citizenship, on socialism, 
or hygiene or any subject that suggested 
itself. But I confined myself to religion only 
in my notes that I propose to present here. 

At our next meeting I said, " What do you 
know today?" 

11 Let me talk to you about God again, as a 
diversion today. The very ancient in their 
wars, or perhaps it would be more accurate 
to say in their feuds, viewed the successful 
party as having been aided by the Gods. The 
leaders of the victorious must have been in 
league with some invisible power, with some 
spirit or God, or they had the power to com- 
12 



Reason Not Superstition 

municate with God who assisted them. 
Moses assumed this role, and so did Joshua. 
God gave Joshua instructions to kill or drive 
out all the inhabitants of Palestine. While the 
Jews were too far advanced in intelligence and 
civilization to believe Joshua to have been a 
God, they still believed that he could com- 
municate with God, and that God assisted 
him in his struggles with the enemy." 

" God assisted Joshua in robbing the Philis- 
tines of their homes because He was the God 
of the Jews, and their enemy was His enemy." 

"But the less civilized people of an earlier 
period, when the leader of a tribe died after 
having triumphed over the enemy, thought 
he must have been a God, and the followers 
sought to consult with his spirit. They sought 
and implored his spirit for aid in their wars." 

"It was in this way that man was led to 
ancestor worship, and idol worship." 

"But with nearly all peoples, as with the 
Jews, there was an invisible, all-seeing eye 
above them. This invisible spirit or power 
they were anxious to discover — to behold. 
Man has invented many theories to accomplish 
this. Many assertions were made that in- 
dividuals had accomplished this. But Man 
13 



Truth Not Legend, 

has never found anything more definite about 
God, this great Power, than that which nature 
reveals to us. All nature proclaims an All 
Wise Creator, and an ever present Sustainer. 
All nature asserts that there is a God. But the 
human eye cannot see a spirit, nor can a spirit 
communicate with Man." 

a While we feel positive that there must be a 
great first Cause, a Supreme Ruler, a God, who 
deserves of our adoration, yet we cannot teach 
our children, truthfully, that any one particular 
mode of worship, or any particular denomi- 
nation among the many, has the preference, 
or approval of God. Nor can we prove that 
those who do not worship at all, if they live a 
life of chastity, honesty and humanity, offend 
God. 

"Yet we feel that God's many blessings 
should prompt us to reverence and adore him, 
and teach our children to do the same. If 
God did so control men, inspire them, that 
they wrote what He desired them to write, 
if God can control men and make them do 
such good deeds, is he not unjust if he does 
not control men or lead men that are inclined 
to do evil acts?" 

"That is my opinion. God would be unjust 
14 



Reason Not Superstition 

if He permitted a man to do wrong, if He could 
prevent it, and afterward punish him for his 
misdeeds." 

"If it is wicked to be an infidel, why does 
not God control such persons, and lead them to 
become believers? Why does He not control 
me and prevent me from offending Him, in 
making this refutation of the Bible as His word? 
I am sure I desire to be good, and to honor 
Him, and please Him, just as much as any one. 
I cannot understand why it should make me 
wicked, to doubt that which to me is not true, 
even if my neighbor accepts it to be God's 
word." 

"I am convinced my neighbor is mistaken, 
and feel justified in expressing my convictions, 
by making use of my mental faculties, of my 
reasoning powers that God has given me, I 
have convinced myself that we have no word of 
God, and I can not see that I should be offensive 
to God for this, especially if He can control 
us." 

"I am sure God can control an infidel just 
as well as He can inspire and control any one 
else." 

" God is not almighty if He can control and 
inspire one person and not another." 

15 



Truth Not Legend, 

" God is the same yesterday, today and for- 
ever." 

" God is no respector of persons." 

"If God was able to appear to man, make 
Himself visible, in the past dark ages of super- 
stition, He is able to appear to us at the present 
time." 

" Even if we do not see God, we see His love 
for us, and His kindness toward us all around 
us, and it is our duty to recognize and acknowl- 
edge His kindness. God's love is manifested 
in giving us the five senses, and it behooves us 
to be thankful for these blessings, but above 
all those, the sense of consciousness, the voice 
of God to us, to guide us in paths of rectitude 
is perhaps the greatest of all blessings." 

"This voice of God, our conscience, makes 
us humane; we see in our fellowman the 
brother." 

"And there will be no greater blessing for 
the human family to enjoy than that which 
will eventually result in the establishment of a 
true universal brotherhood. Such a brother- 
hood will banish cruelty, which is savagery, 
and strifes and most of the suffering from us 
forever." 

"But we also behold God's goodness in the 

16 



Reason Not Superstition 

innumerable blessings that He gives us through 
nature." 

"We feast upon the beauties of nature all 
around us every day with our wonderful eyes. 
And upon the sweet fragrance and upon the 
delicious taste of the many various fruits and 
upon the soothing music of birds and instru- 
ments, sufficient to wake in us an unceasing 
flow of praise and gratitude and a true worship 
of God." 

11 These wonders, and this love of God mani- 
fested toward us must be taught our children." 

With these words I started for home. 



17 



CHAPTER III 

When we met again I asked him what he 
thought of Jesus. 

" The self sacrificing and heroic work of Jesus, 
and of the martyrs for conscious convictions, 
have been to us of the greatest value, and this 
should be impressed upon the minds of our 
children." 

"It was through these that we have made 
such great strides in civilization, and as we 
are apt to retrograde and become heathens 
again, their good deeds and sacrifices must 
always be kept before the people/ ' 

"It is therefore of the utmost importance 
that we be united into a brotherhood, into a 
Church, .into a body to reverence and honor 
God, and teach our children to do the same. 
That is what God created us for, to become 
more intelligent every day, to become more 
humane and brotherly and to teach our children 
and assist each other in bearing and per- 
forming our duties to God." 

18 



Reason Not Superstition 

" That is my conception of the whole matter." 

"God is love. All nature, all creation pro- 
claims this, and this love toward us, His most 
intelligent creatures, calls forth our deepest, 
most heartfelt gratitude, and awakens in us a 
sense of our obligation to worship, to adore, 
and to reverence Him." 

"If God is love, which I believe is true, 
what about the terrible accidents and the 
fearful suffering that we have all around us 
continually?" 

"Yes, I know, we have ills, and at times 
some of us are most terribly afflicted, and 
some have at times most excruciating pains 
on account of diseases and accidents, but these 
are not visitations of God's wrath. It is only 
the ignorant and superstitious that believe 
that God gets angry at us, and seeks to punish 
us by such dire afflictions." 

" It is most always our own fault. By our 
ignorance, self-abuse, and folly, and by our 
indifference and carelessness, we bring most of 
our suffering upon us." 

" It is true that God made it possible for us 
to suffer, and he knew when he created us that 
we would have to suffer at times, but this is 
necessary to teach us our dependence on Him, 

19 



Truth Not Legend, 

and it brings us to realize and value His 
blessings, and recognize His love toward us, 
which we would not comprehend otherwise." 

"We suffer because we, or our fellow men, 
have violated the laws of nature, or on account 
of accidents. God is not responsible for our 
misdeeds, nor for our diseases or accidents. 
We violate the laws of nature because we are 
ignorant, and evil results follow as a conse- 
quence." 

"If we were more civilized, we would have 
less paupers, and consequently much less 
suffering, for most of our suffering could be 
averted if we were properly educated." 

A car being ready we went to the surface and 
when we touched upon the subject again I 
asked him about sociableness. 

"If we realized more how much we are 
dependent upon each other, we would associate 
much more, and consult with each other much 
more. We should be a universal brotherhood, 
organized to assist each other, and educate 
the children and the illiterate, and to honor 
and reverence God." 

"The savage were such, because they were 
ignorant and because they were ignorant they 
were cruel. Ignorance leads to cruelty, and 
20 



Reason Not Superstition 

cruelty is savagery. So then, it behooves us 
to seek to attain the highest and best education , 
and to assist our brothers, our fellowmen to 
attain to the same plane of sociability. " 

"Education has revealed to man the fact 
that idols are inert and powerless, inanimate 
and devoid of potencv, simply matter devoid 
of life." 

"Education has discovered to us, though 
an impalpable, and intangible an all pervading 
power or life, and this life or spirit is our God." 

"We believe in a God that permeates the 
Universe as our life permeates our body, and 
not in an anthropomorphous being." 

"Is it your opinion that God can lead the 
intelligent better than the illiterate?" 

" God has established the laws of nature to 
control us, and everything else, and it is by 
these laws that we are controlled, and not 
directly by God." 

"This planet has been here a long time — 
millions of years, and when Man first appeared 
here he must have been very ignorant, but 
God, by the law^s of nature, led him from one 
plane of civilization upward to another, a 
higher, until we have reached our present 
stage. But before this world was created, 
21 



Truth Not Legend, 

Man or a similar creature was in existence. 
The stellar Universe is here from eternity and 
so is Man, or intelligent beings. " 

"But how could Man exist if there was no 
world?" 

" From eternity how many worlds may have 
been here, and passed away, is hard to tell. 
But we must believe that as a solar system, 
occupying the same space as that occupied by 
our solar system of today; became exhausted 
and turned into chaos, it reformed and a new 
system was the result.* And it is only natural 
that man, or a similar creature, occupied at 
least one planet of each system. It is my 
opinion that intelligent beings are not only 
found on this planet, but upon innumerable 
other bodies, made for the sustenance of life, 
throughout the entire stellar universe." 

"By that argument the Bible story of the 
creation of all things about six thousand years 
ago is entirely repudiated." 

" Yes, that certainly is a story. In this age 
of intelligence and knowledge, it does not re- 
quire much study to convince one that it can 
not be entertained. Man may have inhabi- 

*The duration of eternity. 

22 



Reason Not Superstition 

tated this earth more than fifty millions of 
years already." 

At this time we separated again. 

At our next meeting I called his attention 
to the assertion that man was here for so long 
a period and is only now emerging from 
savagery. 

" That is a fact, but when we study the thing 
over a little we can only see it in that way. 
Want is the mother of invention, and as 
primitive Man had but few wants he made but 
little progress in inventions. He made no 
improvements as long as he felt the need of 
none. The more the population increased, 
and the more dense it became, the more the 
inventive trait developed and new modes of 
providing for himself and of protecting himself 
and family were devised." 

" He had the same mental capacity then that 
he now has, but as long as he was not com- 
pelled to improve himself he made no efforts 
to do so. But as soon as difficulties arose he 
tried to overcome them by new inventions, 
and where he was unable to overcome them, 
he instinctively sought the aid of a higher 
power. Here was the nucleus of religion and of 
civilization." 

23 



Truth Not Legend, 

"If, when he sought the aid of a higher 
power he succeeded in overcoming his difficulty, 
his prayer had been answered. " 

" It was evident that he could influence this 
superhuman power, and after his death his 
spirit was sought at his grave, and implored 
to aid the survivers in their struggles." 

"To be able to protect his grave, and find 
the correct spot, a marker was placed to it, 
perhaps a stone or some other object. While 
some worshiped the dead ancestor, others 
forgot the buried person, and worshiped the 
stone marker, establishing both ancestor and 
idol worship." 

" Don't you think that God did often answer 
their prayers?" 

" No, I do not believe that God will answer 
the prayer of any one." 

" God has made us free agents, and will not 
help any one because he prays." 

"In this respect Man is superior to the 
animal. We know wrong and can do it. Man 
can do wrong if he chooses." 

" Adam chose to do wrong, and fell; so do we 
fall when we do wrong." 

"We admit that all deliberate wrong doers 
should be punished. As we are made in the 
24 



Reason Not Superstition 

image of God, and as we punish wrong doers, 
so will God who has made us, punish us." 

"We can, therefore, expect nothing but 
punishment from Him for our deliberate evil 
deeds. We know what is right and it is our 
duty to do it. We do pardon evil deeds when 
the act was unintentional or accidental, and 
this is what we may expect from our Heavenly 
Father who knows the very motives of the 
heart." _ 

The time for separation had arrived. 



25 



CHAPTER IV 

At our next meeting the same subject being 
under consideration he said: — 

" It is an undeniable duty to honor God by 
a life void of offense toward God." 

" What about the atheist?" 

" The atheist does not believe that there is a 
God, and to teach a man that he is not respon- 
sible for his acts to a higher power, is to make 
the evil inclined a worse being than an animal. 
Nothing is too mean, too low, too brutal for a 
character having no fear of punishment. The 
atheist must be an abnormal thinker. For 
this reason has God made us conscious of His 
presence and conscious of the wrong of evil 
acts, and made us to fear His wrath." 

"Conscience is God's voice." 

"How was it that primitive Man could not 
understand God's voice? If conscience is 
God's voice, they had a conscience?" 

"The untutored savage could not compre- 
26 



Reason Not Superstition 

hend an invisible God; to them it had to be 
something tangible, something palpable. Yet 
he had a certain fear, a partial conception of 
that voice. " 

" But God, in our creation, had not intended 
that we should know all these things. Man 
was given a mind; he must develop his mind, 
he must discover and invent. While Man in 
the savage stage had the mental capacity 
just as we have, he had not discovered that 
God is an all pervading spirit, nor had he 
developed mentally far enough to understand 
his relationship to such a God." 

"When we study it over, the heathen must 
be very dense to imagine that they might 
derive benefit from worshipping idols." 

" Some of us accept unto ourselves Jesus, a 
man, as God. We pray to Jesus as the great 
God of the Universe. Is that any better?" 

" If Jesus is not God is it wrong to worship 
Him?" 

" No, but it is very foolish; what is it to God 
what or who you worship?" 

"What God expects of us is a correct life, 
chastity, honesty, humanity. If we were not 
intelligent beings, we would not commit sin." 

"It is our knowing it, when we do a wrong 

. 27 



Truth Not Legend, 

act, that makes it a wrong, or a sin. We intel- 
ligent creatrues are conscious of the fact, when 
we do wrong, and cannot escape this con- 
sciousness, this God's voice that is a monitor 
to keep us from f ailing/ ' 

" By our intelligence we know that when we 
steal a thing we need not work for it, but it is 
also by our intelligence that we know that it is 
wrong to steal and so God knew in the creation 
that Man as an intelligent creature would also 
often be a wicked creature." 

"By your argument it seems that God 
desired that we should be evil doers." 

" The All Wise God knew that some of us 
would be wicked, but he does not desire that 
we should sin. By the laws of nature God 
controls all things. It is natural for us to do 
wrong, even if it requires of us to stifle our 
conscience, and we naturally know it when we 
do a wrong act. We free agents might do 
better, but we yield against better judgment, 
against conscious convictions of wrong doing, 
and follow the natural inclination and do the 
wrong, especially when we can derive some 
material benefit from it." 

"Man, to ease his conscience, makes laws 
legalizing the taking of his neighbor's goods, 
28 



Reason Not Superstition 

but God does not approve of such laws, nor 
does he absolve the perpetrator and violator 
of his laws." 

"Why did God put the temptation to do 
wrong before us?" 

"It is necessary for us to have the evil 
present, otherwise we would not recognize 
and appreciate the good." 

"By adversities we learn to value blessings; 
by sickness we learn to value health and to 
protect and take care of ourselves; by accidents 
we learn to fear and avoid danger." 

"The All Wise God has made all things for 
our good." 

" It is a great blessing to be intelligent, but 
it brings with it its responsibilities. If we 
were not so we would not be conscious of 
trouble, we would never worry about evil and 
misfortune; we could not be sinners." 

"As much as it is in our power, we should 
make it impossible for evil, adversity, enmity, 
cruelty, diseases, fraud and all such things 
that tend to disquietude, to exist." 

"It seems to me that the Church should 
expose all evil and all evil doers." 

" That is what the new Church will do. We 
will be a universal brotherhood as far as 
29 



Truth Not Legend, 

possible. We will be true christians, as Jesus 
taught and gave us an example of what we 
should be." 

"What is, in vour opinion, a true chris- 
tian?" 

"The true christian is one who does just as 
Jesus did and as He taught us to do, or as the 
Bible says that He did and taught." 

"We should do to others as we would have 
them do to us; love our neighbor as ourselves, 
do just exactly right. And when finally the 
great account book is opened, conscience will 
reveal to us our past life at last, and we all 
will be judged accordingly." 

" So you mean to tell me that our conscience 
is not only God's voice to us, but that it also 
is God's book of remembrance?" 

"Yes, it is all that, and more, for our con- 
science is also our guide, our monitor, to keep 
us from falling." 

"It is for this reason that we must have 
schools. We must be educated to be able to 
act intelligently. We must have schools and 
churches, teachers and preachers, Sunday- 
schools and libraries, religious or sacred and 
scientific books of all kinds to aid us in learning 
to understand what God desires of us, and it 

30 



Reason Not Superstition 

will be our duty in all diligence to seek to 
observe it." 

"You seem to think that an education is 
necessary to a man's salvation." 

" I certainly do, every man must be educated 
to be what God intended him to be. We 
cannot help but see that God would have us 
to be intelligent and enlightened, a universal 
brotherhood, all equal as near as possible, all 
evil and suffering banished as much as possi- 
ble." 

" You have an idea that Man can attain that 
intelligence that he will be able to banish all 
diseases and suffering?" 

" Yes, I am sure if each individual is properly 
educated from childhood up, raised in such an 
hygienic atmosphere, and receives proper 
nourishment, shelter and protection, such as 
intelligent parents can give their children from 
infancy, and assisted by a universal brotherhood 
in the rearing and educating, that diseases can 
be almost totally banished, barring old age or 
the wearing out of the body." 

"It is very encouraging to see so many 
parochial schools if only the instructors were 
less bigoted." 

" It is a deplorable fact that so many of our 
31 



Truth Not Legend, 

preachers and teachers do not seek to enlighten 
the pupils, do not seek the welfare of their 
fellow men, but only the remuneration for 
their service/' 

" They are more concerned about keeping 
them in ignorance so as to be able to control 
them, make them bigots so as to retain them 
as church members, teaching false doctrine." 

"What is the false doctrine that you claim 
they teach?" 

"One is that Man was made for Heaven. 
This life is only to fit and prepare us for the life 
to come; another is that Man is born a sinner 
and unfit for Heaven, and must make an 
atonement, or must have some one to make an 
atonement for him; and another is that any 
crimes that we commit will be forgiven if we 
ask God for Jesus sake to forgive us; and 
another is that the Church of which we are 
members, we are the body, is the only true 
Church, making us bigots." 

"It is very evident that Man was made for 
this earth, for we love this earth, everything is 
to our taste, and we loath to leave it. There- 
fore, Man should be fitted, the best way possible 
to occupy the position and place for which he 
was intended. We would remain here forever 
32 



Reason Not Superstition 

if we were permitted. In fact we are con- 
tinually searching for a serum to destroy the 
germs that kill." 

"By the laws of nature the body becomes 
worn out and unable to sustain life, but we 
fight to the end to remain here." 

"Do you think that can be accomplished?" 

"I am afraid not, but reincarnation is not 
untenable." 

"But if we were to come back again, live 
again in a body or if we have been here before, 
future punishment would not be, or is not 
meted out to us, for we are not conscious of 
any past life, or of any past life acts." 

"That is true and yet reincarnation answers 
every question better than any other theory." 

" God is not a despotic monarch that desires 
millions of millions of worshippers around 
His Throne." 

" If God had intended us for angels He would 
have made us as such. We were intended for 
this earth and cannot qualify too well for it. 
If each newborn is a new life to live forever in 
Heaven or Hell, both places must be very full. 
But if each newborn is only the reincarnation 
of a former life, there is no increase." 

"And while this is a possibility, let us so 

33 



Truth Not Legend, 

live that if we come again, we may come free 
of all sinful inclinations, void of bad habits, 
so that we may deserve greater blessings than 
we have enjoyed this time. And so that we 
may be of greater usefulness each successive 
return/ ' 

"The human family is getting wiser each 
generation, the wicked as well as the good. 
To which class do we belong?" 

"Are we doing our best to be good and 
useful?" 

"Everlasting life would be desirable, but 
not everlasting idleness. Everlasting life right 
here on earth. Everlasting rest would soon 
become a punishment to us active beings. 
The mind must be employed at least. And 
we would not be ourselves if we were to be 
transformed into a different being, into a non- 
active being, and this life of probation would 
be a farce." 

"If we were to live forever doing nothing, 
without pleasure, without music and musical 
instruments, which require work to play, or 
without entertainments or vehicles, which 
require work to enjoy, or without some of the 
good things to eat and drink, and books to 
read, all requiring work, it would soon become 

34 



Reason Not Superstition 

to us the worst kind of punishment. Man was 
made to be active both physically and mental- 

" Man has all the possibilities for develop- 
ment, and is ambitious and should not be 
satisfied unless he is able to do something 
worth while." 

"Heaven, as the present Church believes, 
is not the abode of the active, but a place of 
rest." 

"To the new Church, Heaven starts right 
here and will be to each one very much what 
we make it." 

" Let us bring it to ourselves and our brothers 
in all its possible fullness." 

" Heaven is within us. We, the sons of God, 
are the Creators of it, so if we do not repel it, 
we are in it, and can keep within it all through 
this life, and have it in the life to come." 

" By all means let us strive for Heaven." 

At this time we took the cage for the surface. 



35 



CHAPTER V 

At our next meeting I said: — "What is 
your opinion about the animal? Is the young 
the same, mentally, as the child?" 

"No, indeed, the animal with instincts is 
born with a brain the counterpart of the 
mother's. It knows all the mother knows as 
soon as it is born, and it knows all it ever will 
know almost as soon as it is born. The brain 
of the infant is a blank and must learn every- 
thing that it ever will know." 

"Yes, there seems to be a vast difference, 
but as long as our attention is not called to it, 
we do not notice it so much. The animal 
knows how to help itself, and how to avoid 
danger, as soon as it is born, but the child is 
entirely helpless. Yes, there is a vast dif- 
ference. The infant must develop its mind; 
it must learn everything that it ever will 
know, but the infant has the ability to learn 
and the animal has not, or but very little." 

36 



Reason Not Superstition 

"The mind of the infant may be neglected, 
or it may be developed in a wrong direction. 
The child may be educated to a certain extent, 
but may be dishonest or cruel, or immoral. 
The environments have a great effect on the 
young mind. Great care should be exercised 
in the selection of the teacher. The teacher 
should be capable, honest, and sincere, and so 
impart knowledge and direct the mind, that 
the child as it grows up may become intelli- 
gent, honest, moral and a useful member of 
society. The instructions should be such that 
the child will be able to select for itself the 
Church that seems to it the most proper in 
its mode of worship/' 

"Should not the mother then, the infant's 
first teacher, be a well educated person?" 

"Certainly, the mother should not only be 
educated and know how to direct the mind of 
her infant, but she should understand how to 
nourish and protect the body, so that it will 
become vigorous and fit for a well developed 
mind." 

st Will education help us to discover what is 
in store for us in a future life, do you think?" 

u I do not think that we will ever be able to 
know what comes after this life." 

37 



Truth Not Legend, 

At this point they started for home. 

The first opportunity I had to open on the 
subject again, I said: — "The Church offers 
pardon to all. Will God honor the Church, 
and grant a pardon when the whole Church 
prays for it?" 

" That is a delusion. To commit crime and 
expect the Church to be able to absolve us, 
and free us of the punishment due us, is the 
height of folly. There was a time when Man 
believed such things, and there may be some 
who believe it yet, and there are a whole lot 
that try to believe it because the Church teaches 
so, but they are only deceiving themselves, 
for their conscience tells them differently, 
and the intelligent and truly honest know that 
it is only a delusion." 

" If Jesus is not our atonement, if we cannot 
be pardoned for our sins, of what use are the 
Churches?" 

"They are of more importance than ever 
before to warn the evil inclined, for while he 
was told by the Church that his sins would 
condemn him unless he sought pardon, the 
new Church will teach that it is dangerous to 
commit crimes, as there is no pardon prom- 
ised." 

38 



Reason Not Superstition 

"In the new Church the question will be 
how have we lived, have we avoided evil deeds, 
for if we have not we will be punished. The 
doctrine or form of worship will amount to 
nothing, sincerity, uprightness and reverence, 
every thing/ ' 

" All the different forms of worship, from the 
lowest depth of ancestor worship and idol 
worship to the highest form of intelligent 
Christianity, have only been a series of steps, 
in advancement from a vaguely understood 
effort to reach and worship the great first 
Cause, or God, to a full realization of Man's 
relation to his Maker. Each was one form a 
little nearer to the correct conception than the 
other, until Christianity was reached, and will 
continue until the entire human family renders 
to God a sincere and becoming service." 

"Do you think that the human family will 
ever attain that plane of perfection of service 
to God, that they will subscribe to one mode 
of worship, and unite into one universal 
brotherhood?" 

"I do, and why not? Yet I do believe that 

there will be always some factions or bodies, 

more devout than others, and some evil doers 

will always be found. There will be but one 

39 



Truth Not Legend, 

mode or one universal brotherhood, but dif- 
ferent bodies using different forms. We have 
learned to know that it is our duty to lead a 
righteous, upright, humane, God-fearing life, 
and to serve God by acknowledging His good- 
ness and loving kindness to us, and feel it our 
duty to praise Him in song and thanksgiving." 

" It is our conviction that reward or punish- 
ment awaits every one of us according to the 
deeds done in the body." 

"Under these circumstances it behooves 
us to live a righteous, God-fearing life, and 
teach our children from infancy that evil 
doers will be punished, and good deeds re- 
warded/' 

" It is evident that we must have Churches, 
and Sunday-Schools, preachers and teachers. 
If we had no Churches and Sunday-schools, 
the rising generation would soon drift back into 
barbarity and heathenism. If our children 
were taught that there was no pardon for 
crimes committed, but that all criminals must 
be punished either by us or by God, if they 
escape us, there would be fewer criminals and 
less crime. We have too many who depend 
on being pardoned for any evil deeds, or crimes, 
they may commit, by only praying to Jesus." 
40 



Reason Not Superstition 

" If they can escape the law, or civil punish- 
ment, they have no fear of God's punishment, 
for they console themselves that as soon as 
they desire God's forgiveness they need but 
avail themselves of the atonement of Jesus, 
and God, for Jesus' sake, will forgive them." 

"They make the assertion that God for 
Jesus' sake forgives us all our misdeeds, our 
crimes, even if our sins be as scarlet — murder — 
they shall be made white as snow. This is 
not good for our children. By such instruction 
we license crime. It is evident that it was 
God's object in placing us here that we should 
use our minds, that we should think, that we 
should make discoveries and inventions, scien- 
tific and religious, so as to produce better 
methods for our protection, both body and 
soul. But our education should make us 
good, true and useful." 

" Primitive Man found it difficult to provide 
for himself at times, because of his lack of 
knowledge; famine would stare him in the 
face at times. He lacked tools to till the soil, 
and also knowledge of how to cultivate it so 
as to produce food. He had no weapons but 
clubs and stones. Under such conditions, 
when he was hard pressed he was led to do one 
41 



Truth Not Legend, 

of two things: — He could steal his neighbors' 
goods or he could invent new methods of pro- 
viding for himself. Stealing was the easiest 
and was generally resorted to." 

" Want was his first school master. It lead 
him to think, to invent weapons; but it lead 
him also to become cruel and wicked." 

"The weapons used to kill game were also 
used to kill his enemy, his neighbor. So that 
intelligence led Man to become cruel, or savage, 
for cruelty is savagery." 

Here the argument for the day was 
dropped. 

When the opportunity offered itself again, 
I asked him if he thought that intelligence or 
education, led a man to become worse? 

"Education may lead a man to become a 
worse creature than he would have been if 
he had not been educated. The educated 
criminal is more to be dreaded than the ignor- 
ant criminal." 

" If Man had only instinct he would not have 
become so cruel, so savage and wicked. He 
would be like the animal. It was his knowl- 
edge of how to wreak vengeance that made him 
so cruel." 

"Do you mean to say that as long as a 
42 



Reason Not Superstition 

people is cruel so long do they lack in civi- 
lization even if they are educated?" 

"That's it. We gauge the civilization of a 
people by their disposition, the more cruel, 
the less civilized." 

"A people may be intelligent, or cunning, 
and yet be savage." 

"We have overcome that fearful cruelty 
of crucifying and burning alive, but we do 
permit our fellow man to suffer for want of 
bread at times and as long as we, in a land of 
plenty, can permit such things, so long do we 
lack in being a fully civilized people. So 
long as we permit any one to suffer for want 
of bread or raiment in this land of plenty and 
often superfluity, so long do we disgrace the 
name of Christianity." 

"Would Christ own such a people as His 
followers, as christians?" 

"I doubt very much, unless they could 
plead ignorance." 

"We certainly have made great strides in 
the direction of civilization, but it is evident 
we are far from being a fully civilized people 
yet. It is very evident that the intelligence 
that led Man to cruelty and savagery, now 
leads Man to civilization and humanity. The 

43 



Truth Not Legend, 

time will come when humanity and civilization 
will demand a religion, a Christianity that will 
not permit the suffering of a single soul where 
it can be prevented, but will help the helpless 
everywhere. 

"The man who has the mental capacity 
to accumulate will also have the christian 
spirit. He will devote his superfluous ac- 
cumulations to the ameliorations of the needy, 
of those less blessed with mental acumen. " 

"The christian spirit will be such that the 
wealthy will be taxed sufficient to raise enough 
wherewith to relieve all those in distress and 
need/ 1 

" We will have reached a perfect civilization 
when all cruelty is banished from the world." 

" When each one does his duty and idleness 
is nowhere to be found and the compensation 
of the employee is sufficient to prevent suf- 
fering." 

"Here, deviating from the subject temporari- 
ly, I requested his opinion on the veracity of 
Church members." 

"I believe that we have many Church 

members who make statements that they know 

are not facts, but for the sake of making an 

impression on the infidel, they say things that 

44 



Reason Not Superstition 

they cannot believe themselves. I would not 
like to accuse any Church member of telling a 
falsehood or even of exaggerations. The 
truth is what we expect in all cases of every 
one. 

" In all our communications and intercourse 
with our neighbors we should avoid or guard 
against giving offense by fabrications. To 
none do we look so much for the truth as to 
the clergy." 

"We hear continual complaints on the part 
of the clergy about the nonattendance of the 
male members of the congregation. In my 
opinion, it is time they should be informed 
why this is so." 

"It is also time that methods of reform 
should be adopted that will remedy this 
undesirable evil condition." 

"To be frank, we cannot imagine that a class 
of individuals so intelligent, and usually well 
educated as the prelates, can be ignorant of 
the cause, but must believe they fear that the 
truth would be harmful to the Church. This 
is impossible, the truth can harm no good cause. 
I realize that by this intimation we express a 
doubt of the sincerity and integrity of these 
individuals. This we are loath to do, yet we 
45 



Truth Not Legend, 

are unwilling to attribute ingorance to them, 
but why preach falsehood?" 

"But if they really and truly believe the myths 
handed down to us by the illiterate and super- 
stitious of the dark ages to be the truth, we, 
the common people, do not believe it. And 
for us to listen to fables when we go to Church 
is more than we are willing to do, and therefore 
we remain away from Church. The intelligent 
preacher should have more respect for the 
intelligent member than to expect him to 
countenance such sermons. Every intelligent 
person will admit that the Bible teaches the 
best morals and contains the best laws and 
rules for our mode of living, and each one 
desiring to please God in this life, and gain a 
happy future life will adopt them as his guide." 

" If I can understand you, it is your opinion 
that as soon as the truth is preached, the 
Churches will again be filled by the male 
members of the Church, or by the common 
people?" 

"That is my candid opinion, for many of 
our non-church goers love the Church, and 
recognize its value." 

u They say the present Church is a grand and 
noble institution, and has proved itself a great 
46 



Reason Not Superstition 

civilizer and blessing. It teaches grand truths 
in its Sunday school, and it stands for morality, 
chastity and integrity, and for humanity, 
but mingled with this it teaches some myths 
as truth. It teaches some falsehoods. When 
all myths and superstitions are eliminated and 
the Church teaches nothing but the truth, it 
will become the greatest blessing and the 
most valuable institution the human family 



"This blessing will manifest itself in the 
universal attendance and the universal brother- 
hood it will establish." 

Here we separated. 



47 



CHAPTER VI 

When the next opportunity offered itself, 
I broached this subject by saying: — "We must 
be sort of dual beings; the good and the evil 
are existing in us." 

" Not just dual beings, but we do naturally 
sometimes things that are wrong, and it is, 
therefore, evident that God designed that Man 
should also do such good things as writing 
sacred books; the Bible as such is a guide and 
its good instructions are for us to follow or 
observe." 

" In your opinion, God did not inspire those 
old Jews to write the Bible?" 

"No, those old Jewish patriarchs in the 
Bible time were so corrupt and licentious, that 
when one did a good deed they concluded he 
must be inspired of God. Environments and 
circumstances were the governing elements to 
lead men to do good or evil then, the same as 
they are now. It was the natural inclination 
of the writers. I do believe that they thought 
they were doing the will of God in writing the 

48 



Reason Not Superstition 

Bible, and some may have even felt con- 
strained by God, but God controls no one. 
Even if they said, Thus saith the Lord/ that 
is no proof that God did say so. It is my opin- 
ion that in some cases they concluded the 
assertion that God had said so, would have the 
effect on the evil inclined to turn them from 
their evil inclinations." 

"God has created both the weeds and the 
flowers, the tares and the grain, the good and 
the bad in all nature, and has designed that 
some of us should be inclined to evil and some 
to righteousness, for He is the Ruler, by the 
laws of nature, of everything, and everything 
is just as He wants it or desires it to be. God 
knows all about our constitutions, and capa- 
bilities but he does not interfere with our 
inclinations." 

"When He created us, He limited our 
possibilities and powers; we might have greater 
or we might have less power, if God had de- 
signed it so. We are very much alike and yet 
are all dissimilar. We all have minds yet we 
differ very much in mental capacity. We 
differ in intelligence; some are more intelligent, 
some are more humane, some more depraved, 
but there are only a few prodigies." 

49 



Truth Not Legend, 

"There was only one Jesus, one Napoleon, 
one Moses, one Edison." 

"The new Church will still retain Jesus as 
its head; it will still be Christianity, but pruned 
of superstition." 

"The extraordinaries will still lead and the 
common people will still do the work. Jesus 
has given us the example and we will follow 
His example." 

"If we are only the ordinary, if we do our 
duty, we will please God just as well and just 
as much as the extraordinary." 

"The present Church makes worship the 
essential to please God, the new Church will 
make humanity, chastity and integrity as the 
essentials." 

"The new religion will require a much better 
education; it will require a knowledge of 
hygiene and physics and metaphysics. The 
new religion will require a better knowledge of 
chemistry, of the chemical properties of food, 
and the nutritious value for the infant and the 
adult of everything prepared for the nourish- 
ment of the body." 

"According to that, you would make long- 
evity a part of religion?" 

"Our bodies were given us to take care of 
50 



Reason Not Superstition 

so as to give the mind the longest time possible 
to develop/' 

" So that the preservation of the body, and a 
knowledge of the cause and source of diseases 
and the panacea, will be a part of the new 
religion." 

"In the new religion there must be no 
paupers to breed disease, for the problem of 
the proper control of the wealth will be a part 
of the new religion. The new religion will 
attempt to make this earth so pleasant and 
agreeable to all, that it will be a heaven to us 
to be here. The new religion of 'Love your 
neighbor as yourself/ will tolerate no illiteracy 
among the normal and healthy, and the ab- 
normal and unhealthy will be reduced to the 
lowest possible minimum. The new religion will 
banish war and war implements, all fortifi- 
cations and armies. The new religion will 
require us to be just and not shirk our duty 
in that which has by nature's law, fallen to 
our lot to do. We will not thwart the Creator's 
design, and will therefore please Him." 

"We will be active. But while activity is 
all right, it must be that which makes for 
righteousness, for we may be active in doing 
wrong. History lauds Napoleon for his heroic 

51 



Truth tfot Legend, 

deeds, among them his march to Moscow. 
The new religion will forget such deeds, or 
remember them with horror. We speak about 
our brave army, and of the valor of the Gen- 
erals of both sides, North and South. The 
new religion will pronounce it fratricide. 
Christianity has begun for us a civilization the 
like of which the world has never seen. Jesus 
has, in this, indeed been the Saviour of the 
world, but the new religion will give us a more 
perfect religion and a more perfect civilization." 

"The new religion will not only give us 
societies for the prevention of cruelty to 
animals and children, but also to poor, suffering 
poverty-stricken humanity of all age." 

" Do you believe that there are real christians 
to be found anywhere today?" 

" Oh, yes, there are some; there always have 
been some, but we need a great many more real 
Christ-like persons. We need more Clara 
Bartons, Florence Nightingales, Anthony Corn- 
stocks and a number of self-sacrificing chris- 
tians like those, to set us an example. And 
the so-called christians that have millions 
while their fellowmen are starving, must be 
eliminated." 

" If we have no paupers, we may have men 
52 



Reason Not Superstition 

of wealth that are christians, but not so long 
as we have paupers. In fact, we must have 
some wealthy men to do the business, and 
some with less mental capacity to do the 
menial labor. God truly has sympathy for 
the toiler, and loves him as much as the man 
of wealth. The wealthy, to be true christians, 
should be thankful that he is more fortunate 
to have the mental capacity to accumulate 
wealth, and have pity for those not so blessed, 
who must do the menial labor in order to 
make a living." 

11 Striving to make it possible for the wealthy 
to still accumulate more at the loss to the 
toiler is not in accord with the new religion. 
The new religion will make no distinction 
between the prelate and the lay member; 
there will be no priest worship. While we do 
not expect the millenium, we do expect that 
the new religion will improve the condition 
of the human family just as much again as the 
present christian Church improved its con- 
dition above the pagans." 

"The present christian Church claims to 
have taught this religion of 'Love your neighbor 
as yourself/ for nineteen hundred years; we 
can see with what effect. In fact, it has never 

53 



Truth Not Legend, 

been demanded of its members, but the new 
religion will, and this will eliminate the pauper 
and the unduly rich." 

"The present christian Church claims to be 
the christian Church because it accepts the 
superstitions, legends and myths about a 
human God, for it makes no attempt, or 
but a very feeble attempt to live as Jesus did, or 
as He taught that we should live. The new 
religion will refuse to base itself on the belief 
that Jesus was God, but it will insist that His 
example is the proper mode of life, that His 
teachings as found in the New Testament must 
be followed by us to be true christians/ ' 

"The story that Jesus was God brings with 
it many perplexities. Jesus, as God, fed five 
thousand with five loaves and two fishes, and 
as soon as the multitude was dismissed He 
went up into a mountain to pray." 

"I see; who did He pray to?" 

" I could not explain that. Jesus was Man. 
Jesus was God. How the human could implore 
the Divine in the same body is too difficult for 
me." 

"To imagine that Jesus prayed to Himself, 
answered His own prayers, assisted Himself: 
or was the Divine absent at times? Was He 
54 



Reason Not Superstition 

human for a while and then Divine at other 
times? These are thoughts that are puzzling." 

" It is impossible to answer them and these 
perplexities make it evident that He was only 
human. The present christian Church holds 
that for a man to be a christian he must have 
the superstitious notion that every word of the 
Bible is a positive truth, and that God Himself 
has spoken it through the authors. God 
exercised that control over the men that 
uttered or wrote those words, that they said 
or wrote only just what God wanted them to 
say or write. They were no more free agents. 
The new religion will hold that God foresaw 
the development of Man mentally, and the 
Bible as a result, with many errors much truth, 
and some of the best instructions, but not His 
word." 

"And the new religion will insist on a life 
consistent with the teachings of the Bible. 

" The present christian Church claims that all 
that the Bible requires of us to do for our 
salvation must be done, or eternal damnation 
and eternal Hell-fire will be our punishment, 
but the members lead a life in most cases, as if 
they believed nothing of the kind." 

" The works of the present christian Church 

55 



Truth Not Legend, 

are prayer, paying Church dues, attending the 
services, and observing the sacraments." 

"The works of the new Church will be 
assisting the needy and destitute, teaching 
the illiterate and in honoring God by a correct 
life. The christian will be clean mentally and 
physically, and will be known for his charitable 
acts, and will depend on character for salvation. 
The present christian Church bases salvation 
on faith and prayer, but the new Church will 
base salvation on a mode of life as Jesus taught, 
on humanity, integrity and chastity; in short, 
character/' 

"Is that your belief, that to be saved it is 
necessary to have a good character?" 

"Yes, character and a conscience void of 
offense toward God. Evil will always exist, 
and among the evil that cannot be banished 
entirely will be hypocrisy." 

"The present christian Church teaches that 
by our birth, or by evil deeds, or by both, 
have we become sinners, unrighteous, and 
nothing unrighteous can enter the Kingdom 
of Heaven. We are, therefore, unfit for that 
abode, and of ourselves are powerless to make 
ourselves fit, or of paying the debt, and are 
therefore without hope of salvation." 
56 



Reason Not Superstition 

" So Jesus, who always has been a friend of 
the poor and needy, offers Himself as an 
atonement for our sins. That is, Jesus the 
Creator God, offers Himself to Himself as an 
atonement for His creatures' sins?" 

"No, it was Jesus the Son of God that 
offered Himself to God as an atonement." 

" Well, but He is one of the Triune God, and 
we have only one God." 

"This is indeed a mystery. By this theory 
He is His own Father, and He was His own 
Son, and yet both are one, the Creator of all 
things. He died, or was murdered, and by 
His death He atoned for all our sins — murder, 
rape and felonies." 



57 



CHAPTER VII 

At our next meeting, and while we were 
discussing this subject we had a stranger with 
us, a new miner. I opened the discussion by 
saying: — "It seems to me that it makes but 
very little difference whether we believe that 
Jesus was God or not." 

"Oh, yes it does. Unbelief is the greatest 
sin Man can commit, that is what the present 
christian Churches teach. You must believe 
in the Divinity of Jesus. To doubt, or to 
dispute it, is a sin; in fact, the most of the so- 
called christian Churches teach that to dis- 
believe that Jesus was God is the greatest sin. 
The man that doubts is surely lost." 

"By this doctrine none is permitted to 
express an opinion not even think it, for a 
thought that savors of doubt is a sin. You 
must not use your mind on this subject. 
Such doctrine fetters the timid on this subject. 
This is the doctrine of the clergy who were 
afraid of losing their hold on the people." 

58 



Reason Not Superstition 

"To assert that God does not permit us to 
think, or to form an opinion, but that we must 
believe these mystifying assertions, these 
impossibilities, is foolishness." 

" Jesus told the Jews that inhumanity, dis- 
honesty and immorality were the great sins, 
and they all knew well enough what vast 
amounts must be charged up to them, and as 
Jesus had shown His sympathy for the poor 
and needy, and the oppressed, it required but 
very little to make them believe that He was 
superhuman, or that He was the Son of God, 
the atonement for our sins. They were only 
too glad to find some way to get rid of their 
sins." 

Here our stranger could keep quiet no longer 
and said: — "You should not be permitted to 
make such remarks." 

"Suppose you stop me. Suppose you pray 
for fire to come down from Heaven and con- 
sume me. I am sure you are a good, faithful 
christian, and it says, 'Whatsoever ye shall 
ask the Father, God, in my name, He will give 
it you/ and again, 'Ask and ye shall receive/ 
and again, 'Therefore I say unto you what 
things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe 
that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.' 

59 



Truth Not Legend, 

God's word cannot lie, so use your power and 
have me removed." 

" It does not mean that we should pray for 
anything like that." 

"But it does not specify what we should 
pray for, so how do you know what it means 
that we should pray for? It says, 'If ye have 
faith as a mustard seed, ye can remove moun- 
tains. ' 'And all things whatsoever ye ask in 
prayer, believing, ye shall recieve.'" 

" Yes, I know it does, but it means mountains 
of sins." 

"That is not what the Bible says. You 
are too wise; you know what God meant even 
if He did not say it. I know parents, good 
christian parents, who prayed for their sick 
child, as faith only can pray, that God should 
spare it, and it died after all. And there are 
many such cases. Does God answer prayer?" 

"Sure, God answers prayer. Didn't He 
answer Elijah on Mount Carmel when he 
prayed for fire to come down and consume his 
burnt offering? And again when he prayed for 
rain?" 

"It may be but I doubt it. If God is im- 
mutable, it seems strange that He never 
answers when all the country is praying for 
60 



Reason Not Superstition 

rain, because everything is perishing for the 
want of it. If He answered Elijah, why does 
He not answer these? How is it that God does 
not manifest Himself, appear to us, and 
explain these things?" 

" God did appear in the person of Jesus, and 
was that not sufficient?" 

" But it is only since Jesus was here that we 
have these perplexities. And the appearing 
of God in the person of Jesus is only another. 
Would God adopt such a method to manifest 
Himself to us? Is it reasonable to believe that 
God would be born of a woman? If God de- 
sired to manifest Himself to Man in those dark 
ages of superstition and ignorance, why does 
He not manifest that desire at this time?" 

" The people expected that God would appear 
to them; some even did see Him in the sky. 
But the Jews, God's chosen people, expected 
Him to come and dwell with them as their 
King, but not as the God of the Universe, but 
the God of the Jews and the destroyer of all 
others. It was, therefore, not so great a mat- 
ter for the Jews to believe Jesus was God when 
they heard that assertion." 

"But does it seem logical? Did Jesus, as 
He was traveling with His disciples from 
61 



Truth Not Legend, 

place to place hold a protecting hand over the 
sun? Or did He at the same time have a 
watchful eye over the stars far and near? Or 
was He only God at certain periods and human 
at other periods? What good purpose does it 
serve for us to believe such absurdities, such 
foolishness?" 

"Your arguments are such that those that 
adopt them are entirely without a Savior." 

"I cannot understand why we need a 
Savior." 

"We need a Savior as a mediator between 
us and our Heavenly Father, as our inter- 
cessor with the Father for our sins, as an 
atonement." 

" So your theory is that any one may commit 
crimes and be pardoned, that is what your 
Church teaches." 

" No, you have no right to commit willfully, 
crimes, but we all come short of doing what 
we should do." 

"I understand you, then, that Jesus is not 
our Savior for willful crimes, only for our 
shortcomings?" 

" Well, I am not so sure about that." 

"You are not sure what your Church 
teaches, but you are sure if you are a faithful 

62 



Reason Not Superstition 

member you will go to Heaven when you 
die." 

" My church is the true Church, and if I am 
a faithful member, I am sure Jesus will save 
me." 

"If you do a wrong and do not know that 
it is a wrong, it is no crime, and you need no 
atonement for it. It is the motive that makes 
an act a crime and not the act itself. For 
such innocent misdeeds you need no Savior/' 

"Yes, but a person does things sometimes 
that he knows he should not do, and for such 
acts he needs a Savior, one to make an atone- 
ment." 

"Well, the Church that teaches you that 
you may commit a crime and an atonement 
stands ready, a Savior is ready to pardon you, 
is not a very desirable Church." 

"Why is it not a desirable Church? A 
Church that cannot save you from going to 
Hell is not a desirable Church." 

" The Church that teaches its members that 
they may commit crimes and be pardoned, is 
an institution that invites crime. It says 
that you may commit crimes and yet go to 
Heaven. Such a Church must be the cause of 
much of the crimes committed." 

63 



Truth Not Legend, 

"As long as I belong to the true Church, I 
do not care what it teaches, I am sure of going 
to Heaven when I die." 

" ' Consistency, thou art a jewel/ Let me 
examine your consistency. You believe that 
your Church is the only true Church, the 
only right Church, the only Church that 
saves?" 

" Yes, that is correct, my Church is the only 
Church in which people can be saved." 

"So you must believe that God is so cruel 
that all the other people that do not see it 
as you do are going to be put into eternal 
Hell-fire for their ignorance?" 

"Not for their ignorance, but for their un- 
belief." 

"But if a man cannot believe as you do, 
and to believe that God saves only the few 
that belong to your Church, and consigns all 
the other millions of His creatures to Hell-fire 
is not consistent." 

"And to believe that the members of other 
Churches, not the true Church, are saved also, 
is not consistent." 

" Well, I am going to trust my Savior for my 
salvation, if all the others are lost." 

"To believe that your Savior, Jesus a Jew, 

64 



Reason Not Superstition 

was God, or that God was ever a Jew. or a 
human being, is not consistent." 

"If he wasn't God, He was the son of God." 
" So are we the Sons of God, and to believe 
that God could not save the people without a 
Savior, is not consistent. To believe that God 
so loved the world — us — that He gave His 
only begotten Son to save us, or that God died 
on that terrible cross for our sins, and yet we 
must make such strenuous efforts for our 
salvation is not consistent." 

* And to believe that God could not save the 
people until His Son was sacrificed, or unless 
He saw the blood of His own Son, His own 
dear boy, flow from the wound where the 
Roman soldiers hammered nails through the 
quivering hands and feet, and He was hung on 
those nails on the cross in the burning sun is 
not consistent. It seems that I can hear His 
shrieks, and screams of agony and pain and 
anguish yet, and His pathetic piteous prayers 
and cries for mercy must have been simply not 
endurable to a person of any compassion 
whatever, and to believe that the Almighty 
God, able to save to the uttermost, required 
such cruelty or desired this barbarity, is not 
consistent." 

65 



Truth Not Legend 

"That will do. It is what the Bible teaches, 
and I do not intend to be corrupted by you. 
This is my last shift here." 

" I have no objections, but if the Bible were 
really God's word, it would not have so many 
discrepancies, it would agree with science, with 
astronomy. Scientists declare that the earth 
revolves before the sun to produce day and 
night, and they must understand it, for they 
can tell of eclipses to the minute hundreds of 
years ahead. And to believe that God would 
stop the sun, which in fact does not produce 
day and night effects by its motion, and the 
moon, and could not destroy a devil that He 
had created, that causes the people to do evil, 
for which He will punish them with eternal 
Hell-fire is not consistent." 

At this time the argument for the day was 
stopped and all started for the surface. 



66 



CHAPTER VIII 

At our next meeting I asked: — "Would it 
not be better if we did not argue these ques- 
tions? We would then not become infidels." 

At this two or three chimed in and said: — 
"We have a right to listen to any argument, 
and in fact, it is our duty to learn the truth 
and if we find that the Bible is not the truth, it 
is our duty to let the world know it, and not 
try to stifle our conscious convictions/' 

" If the Jews had never listened to the argu- 
ments of Moses and the prophets, we would 
not have the Bible. If they would not have 
listened to Jesus, we would not have the New 
Testament and Christianity. But to believe 
that the Jews were God's chosen people before 
Jesus was born, although they committed all 
kinds of crimes, and that now they are all 
devils, is not consistent." 

" Do you think that really some of those good 
old saints, if saints they were, did according 
to the Bible deliberately commit murder?" 

67 



Truth Not Legend, 

"Maybe you would not call it murder, be- 
cause it was not called murder in the Bible, 
and because it was done by a Bible character?' ' 

11 But if a man kills his fellowman what else 
can you call him but a murderer? But if 
Moses killed a man, and if he was a murderer, 
that would certainly disqualify him to write 
God's word." 

"Oh, I don't know; he may still have been 
able to do good deeds, but it was not God's 
word that he wrote, only the Pentateuch, and 
he meant it for the best to kill the man." 

"But the Jews are not as good a people 
now as those were who wrote the Bible, or as 
good as they were at the time the Bible was 
written." 

"I do not see why not; they should be the 
same, and if the rest of the world is better they 
should be better, too. It was only a very few 
of them who were the instigators of the death 
of Jesus, only a few considering the great 
number in Palestine and other countries." 

"That is true, there were only a few who 
accused Him and they did not kill Him. It 
was the Roman soldiers who crucified Him." 

"Certainly, the Jews did not kill Him, and 
to believe that the Jews who wrote the Bible 

68 



Reason Not Superstition 

in those dark ages, in that time of legend and 
superstition, and licentiousness and ignorance, 
were all saints, and that it must be all true, and 
all God's word because they said so, whether 
it is logical or reasonable, is not consistent." 

"But it was God's voice from Heaven that 
made the people believe it was God's word." 

"Yes, but what proof have we that God's 
voice was ever heard, but only that the Jews 
that wrote the Bible said so?" 

" To believe that the Bible is God's word, and 
yet fear that the arguments in scientific books 
are so much more convincing than the Bible 
that if we read both, we w r ill become sceptics 
and infidels, is not consistent." 

"The logical reasoning of the Bible if it is 
God's word, should be so convincing and so 
conclusive and so strong, that nothing should 
be able to make us doubt. The arguments of 
the Almighty and All-wise God should be so 
strong and convincing that no scientific argu- 
ments could make us doubt; in fact, they 
should agree with each other." 

" Yes, but we are free moral agents and God 
does not attempt to make us believe Him. He 
does not argue but only asserts it to be so." 

" If we are free moral agents and responsible 
69 



Truth Not Legend, 

for our acts, and yet believe that God could 
control the writers of the Bible, or that He 
could control St. Paul when he was persecuting 
the christians, and could not control Tom 
Paine when he wrote 'The Age of Reason/ 
we are not consistent. " 

" God can only control a man when he is 
willing, when he yields himself to him, when 
he prays for his help." 

"Paul was not praying, and Ananias and 
Saphira were not praying, and to believe He 
could do with them as He pleased, and yet 
cannot control and stop some of the so-called 
christians when they are committing some of 
the darkest crimes, but will freely pardon them, 
is not consistent." 

"I suppose God saw in Paul a useful char- 
acter, something He did not see in others, and 
therefore threw influences around him that 
led him to the light." 

" But God is no respector of persons." 

"To believe that God is no respector of 
persons, and yet believe that He led Paul to 
do good and at the same time believe that He 
instructed Joshua to kill men, women and 
children when he was robbing the Philistines 
of their homes is not consistent." 
70 



Reason Not Superstition 

" But the Philistines were an ungodly heathen 
people, idol worshippers/ ' 

" The Jews were not very holy either, and to 
believe that God has made some so holy that 
all others must be destroyed, or must become 
subject to them or their slaves, is not con- 
sistent.' ' 

"But that is the way; the priest is the holy 
one and knows it all, and the layman is only 
an ignoramus. Jesus taught that He Him- 
self was no better than his disciples, that the 
master should also be the servant." 

"The present Church teaches that we may 
be pardoned, for Jesus sake, for all our 
crimes. " 

"That is exactly what the Bible teaches." 

"Suppose the Bible does teach it, what 
proof have we that the Bible knows?" 

"It must be a fearful thing to be ushered 
into the presence of a just God with a con- 
science accusing us of deliberate crime. The 
deepest and darkest place in Hades must 
await the prelates that will assure Heaven to 
the criminal, for thereby do they encourage 
crime. They are sending criminals to Hell 
with the assurance that they are going to 
Heaven." 

71 



Truth Not Legend, 

"But you do not believe in a Heaven or a 
Hell." 

" Yes, I do, but it is the mental condition, 
and we are in either Heaven or Hell here 
already, and will be so in the life to come. In 
every act we perform, we should put this 
question to ourselves: — 'Will a just God 
approve of it?' It is true that we are the 
image of our maker, and the more intelligent, 
the more nearly like Him, and if we can con- 
scientiously do an act it will stand approved 
of God." 

"As God saw justice, so has He made us, 
His creatures, to see it. We can only believe 
that as God is in disposition, so are we, His 
image." 

"I see we all can learn a great deal every 
day if we but put our minds to work." 

At this juncture we started for home again. 

One day, soon after this, one of the miners 
in the breast adjacent to our young Lecturer's, 
was badly hurt by a fall of coal from the side. 

His injuries, though very painfui, were not 
dangerous. Our young Lecturer went over 
and assisted in bringing him to the gangway. 

" He is the most kind hearted, the most self- 
sacrificing person in the mines," is what all 
72 



Reason Not Superstition 

said. "And so well informed, so well ac- 
quainted with the first-aid requirements. He 
is almost as good as a surgeon or doctor." The 
man that was injured was a Catholic, but his 
"buddy" was an infidel and fond of jesting. 
While they were waiting for a car, and to 
divert his mind from his pain, the "buddy" 
said : — " I must relate to you the dream I had 
last night. I made a trip to the Celestial 
World; in short, I went to Heaven." 

" It didn't do you much good; they wouldn't 
let you in." 

" Oh, yes, they did, I only went as a visitor. 
At the gate I asked for a ticket to see the 
place. Peter looked me over, asked some 
questions, and then gave me a ticket and a 
guide. We started out and the first room we 
came to was the Catholic Heaven. There was 
a great uproar, a great commotion, the better 
element were trying to eject some of the 
pardoned criminals that had come from the 
various jails below, and they were cursing and 
swearing. It was something scandalous. So 
we hurried away and went over to the Metho- 
dist Heaven. Here it was not much better, 
perhaps worse. They were accusing one of 
hypocrisy. Some said he had been drinking 

73 



Truth Not Legend, 

liquor behind the door. The fellow said: — 
'I had hopes of finding rest here, but it is 
nothing but trouble. If I were only back on 
the earth again/ " 

"I did not fancy this complaining so we 
hastened from this place, too. The next was 
the Spiritualist Heaven. Here they were 
continually on the go the whole time we were 
there. This is surely no place of rest. They 
were forever called down to earth to talk to 
some friends. One fellow became very indig- 
nant, his brother asked him if he didn't steal 
and sell his gold watch. He said, 'Earth was a 
better place than this.' That was enough 
from them so we went to the Negro Heaven. 
Here they were all in misery, no chicken, no 
watermelon, nothing just to sit down and mope. 
The atmosphere was so gloomy that we got 
away as soon as possible. Our last visit was to 
the Jew Heaven. We found that they were 
the most forlorn and miserable of all we visited. 
Abraham, as one example, started to tell us 
how long he had been there, over three thou- 
sand years and nothing to do, always the same, 
monotony, monotony. Moses came; he said: — 
1 Egypt was not the worst place to be found, 
if I had my privilege I would go back today/ 
74 



Reason Not Superstition 

" At that moment Adam and Eve came near 
and started to lament. 'Here we are, six 
thousand years doing nothing. If we could 
only have it as we had it in the Garden, and 
oh ! how will we have to spend the long endless 
future eternity?'" 

"I suppose you must have been dreaming 
for about two days." 

"Oh, no, things pass rapidly in dreams." 

" What was the Infidel Heaven like?" 

"All as quiet as a mouse; surely this must 
be the place of rest, but lo, when we opened 
the door, there wasn't a soul in it." 

"All down at the furnace getting warm, I 
suppose?" 

"That may be. The room was empty, that 
is all I know." 

At this the car was ready and we took the 
man home. 



75 



CHAPTER IX 

When the subject came up again our 
Lecturer started out by saying: — "The new 
Church will be an association of persons, or an 
institution, the aim of which will be to aid the 
needy. A body of true christians who recog- 
nize their responsibility to teach their fellow- 
men, so that they may be able to learn what 
appertains to their temporal and eternal good. 
A brotherhood in which each is the other's 
keeper. A Church that will teach that when 
we sin against ourselves by self-abuse, excesses 
and gluttony, that we bring punishment, or 
Hell upon ourselves here in this life and 
probably in the life to come. And that will 
teach that when we sin against our neighbors 
by robbing them, taking from them legally or 
illegally that which belongs to them and not to 
us, and by so doing pauperize them, we bring 
upon them diseases and diabolical and corrupt 
tendencies that will lead to crimes and pesti- 
lence. To be conscious of such acts when we 
76 



Reason Not Superstition 

come to die will be a fearful end. We should 
stop and ponder, in our haste to gain wealth, 
whether money will be a Heaven or a Hell to 
us in the end. It may be a terrible punish- 
ment to us in this life and in the life to come." 

a I can understand you. You mean to say 
that sin is the wrong we do to ourselves and to 
our fellowmen." 

" Yes, and the wrong we do to God." 

"What should a person know in order to 
live a true christian life?" 

"The new Church will instruct its members 
to search the Scriptures, not only read it, but 
to search it for truth. And not only read the 
Bible, but all Scriptures pertaining to a knowl- 
edge of God and His laws, and of Man and his 
future destiny. By all means should we read 
scientific works by some called modernism. 
Some of these are Anthropology, Paleontology, 
Geology, Pantheology, Mythology and also the 
Koran and all other so-called sacred writings. 
The Church has no right to accept any one as 
a full member until he knows something about 
these writings." 

" By your theory only educated people can 
become members of your new Church?" 

u That is it, but the responsibility rests with 
77 



Truth Not Legend, 

the Church to see to it that every member and 
every applicant is properly educated. If the 
Church fails in educating its members, it 
should not be permitted to exist. The true 
christian Church is nothing but an universal 
brotherhood/' 

"But often the so-called christian Church 
makes every effort to keep the brother in 
ignorance to avoid the responsibility of being 
his keepers, and to become his master in order 
to rob him. The clergy desires to have the 
lay brother ignorant in order to have him 
believe that they are very holy, that they are 
God's ambassadors, that they are demi-gods, 
to frighten him into doing anything they 
require. This peonism lies at the door of the 
true christian church to banish. The new 
Church, the true christian Church must relieve 
these oppressed brothers that are held in 
bondage by such Churches in order to rob them. 
This is the great and all important work of the 
new Church, to fearlessly enter the arena and 
rescue these oppressed brothers that are down- 
trodden and ignorant. And not only to 
rescue, but to educate, enlighten and chris- 
tianize them. To see our poor, ignorant 
brothers kept in bondage and ignorance, and 

78 



Reason Not Superstition 

prohibited from making any advancement by- 
forbidding them to read scientific books or 
hear scientific lectures, and not protest, is a 
sin and a shame ." 

" Think of us standing idly by and see men 
calling themselves servants of God, forbid 
their fellowmen, their brothers, make use of 
their God-given faculties is not only a sin but 
a crime." 

The time to separate having arrived, we 
went home. 

At our next meeting I propounded the 
question of the proper use of our wealth. 

"Those that are industrious enough and 
intelligent enough to accumulate wealth, have 
a right to enjoy it. If it was accumulated by 
honest methods, it belongs to them, and they 
should be permitted to enjoy it. But when we 
see men having no higher conception of life 
than to accumulate wealth, only for the pur- 
pose of gratifying selfish lusts or amusements, it 
becomes our duty to preach to them of a 
higher plane, of usefullness. We should seek 
to arouse them from their lethargy, and show 
them their need of self mental improvement, 
and the need of their suffering brothers. It 
becomes our duty, as our brothers' keeper, to 

79 



Truth Not Legend, 

reveal to him the possibilities that he possesses 
of mental development that he may derive 
real enjoyment therefrom." 

"In many of our brothers only the animal 
nature is alive, the Divine is dormant. Among 
many of the laboring class the amusements are 
of the lowest character, drinking and gambling 
and the accompanying vices. The saloon is 
the rendezvous for pastime and pleasures. 
The Church that does not seek to elevate its 
members above this mode of life is a failure, 
and a menace to society and civilization. " 

" It seems to me that you would convert the 
Church into a school. " 

" I hold that the Church has no right to have 
one single illiterate member that has the mental 
capacity to learn. The Church should en- 
deavor to develop the mind of each individual 
from infancy up. The Church should en- 
deavor to implant in the young mind the 
nucleus of a useful life. The Church should 
seek to imbue each mind with the idea that the 
improvement and elevation of humanity was 
required of each member as a service to God, 
and a duty devolving upon each individual. 
The present Church,seeing the great importance 
of educating its members is endeavoring to 

80 



Reason Not Superstition 

meet the requirements through the Sunday- 
school. The Church, to accomplish any good, 
and to accomplish its mission, must be above 
permitting its members to debauch themselves 
in the liquor business or the excessive use of 
it as a beverage." 

" But the Bible says, 'that which goes into 
the mouth does not defile, but that which 
comes out of the mouth/" 

"That is true, the Bible does say so; but 
liquor causes the filth, the evil to come out of 
the mouth, and an excessive use of it is an evil 
and a sin. To call a man a christian or even a 
Church member that staggers along the street, 
or rolls in the gutter full of liquor is profanity; 
it is an affront to God; it is basing a very low 
estimation on the work of Jesus. And to call a 
man, if man he really is, that dispenses the 
liquor, a christian, is worse than profanity; it 
is to deify the devil, and reverence a demon as 
worthy of honor." 

"But God makes the liquor, or makes it 
possible for man to make it." 

"Yes, and so has he made opium and co- 
caine, and all the other poisons, and all are 
for some use, and some very important, or 
the very essentials in the cure of diseases, but 

81 



Truth Not Legend, 

not to be used as a beverage. God never 
intended that Man should make use of any- 
thing as a beverage that will deprive him of 
his reason. God never intended that Man 
should use as a beverage that which affects 
his brain so that he becomes, for the time it 
operates on him, an insane being. And to 
permit men to have their names on the Church 
roll, and on the Roster, and be permitted to 
participate in its management, men that stoop 
so low as to become besotted and degraded by 
the use of liquor as a beverage, is a blot or 
stain on the page of our christian civilization. 
To permit people to imagine that they are 
christians who get beastly drunk, or who de- 
fraud their neighbors, or who stoop to gam- 
bling, or who conduct a business that requires 
the degrading and pauperizing of its patrons 
for its success, is criminal and to stand by and 
not protest against such sacrilege, is equally 
criminal." 

" The Church that permits such members on 
her roll is an institution antagonistic to God, 
and civilization, and Christianity, and is 
directly engaged in the ruination of men and 
the destruction of government, and is sending 
men to Hell." 

82 



Reason Not Superstition 

"The christian Church — falsely so-called — 
that does not endeavor to educate, elevate and 
civilize its members, but permits them to 
engage in a business, or even to patronize such 
a business as prize fights, with all their gory, 
degrading and demoralizing scenes, or lottery 
schemes, taking from the ignorant unjustly, 
or in any kind of debauchery that demoralizes, 
is a curse to society and should be removed 
from the earth. If Christianity is only for the 
purpose of dividing the human family into 
two classes, the educated wealthy ruling class, 
and the ignorant pauper class, savagery and 
heathenism would be preferable." 

"The best way to properly educate the 
people would be to have the Church conduct 
the public schools." 

" A Church or a denominational school can- 
not take the place of the public school until we 
become one universal brotherhood. The 
Church cannot control its teachers that they 
will not teach, so that the child will not become 
bigoted. The denomination will not be able 
to control itself so as to instruct its teachers 
how to teach the children so that they will not 
become bigoted." 

" It is natural for the Church in conducting 

S3 



Truth Not Legend 

a school to inculcate and influence the child 
so as to bring it into the Church as a member, 
and this it cannot do without making the child 
a bigot. The education of a child should be 
such that it would enable it to select for itself, 
at the proper time, the denomination or mode 
of worship that appealed to it as being the 
proper one." 



84 



CHAPTER X 

The argument after having been inter- 
rupted by the separation for the day, was 
again resumed by our young friend saying: — 
"The child should be taught but very little 
about the mode of worship, but should be 
thoroughly familiarized with all the different 
modes. The child should be taught to think 
and think logically. The child should be 
taught that the principal things in the worship 
of God are honesty, humanity and chastity, 
and these are the essentials in the identification 
of the condition of the civilization of a people, 
for the savages are always filthy, brutal, 
ignorant and treacherous. By these we judge 
a people or individual as to the degree of civi- 
lization they have attained. In short, the 
child should be so taught that it would be 
almost impossible for it to become narrow 
minded or bigoted. " 

"I think the most difficult thing will be to 
find teachers that will teach without trying to 
influence the child in matters of religion." 

85 



Truth Not Legend, 

"I know that, but where the subject is 
logically presented in the book, the intelligent 
pupil will not go astray." 

"But the State is the only one able to 
educate the child/ ' 

"The books should be compiled and pre- 
pared by thoroughly educated persons, and 
the teacher should be compelled to teach as 
the books teach." 

The inside foreman, who is always out before 
any of the miners, was delayed this day, and 
being with us, and having heard the argument 
said: — "Don't you believe in Jesus our Sav- 
ior?" 

" If Jesus is our Savior, and He can save us, 
and we are entirely dependent on Him for our 
salvation, why should He permit one soul to 
be lost? If he is able to save to the uttermost 
all that come to Him by faith, and if He is 
God, He can keep us from falling, or from sin- 
ning, and if Jesus is the Almighty and we can 
do nothing of ourselves toward our salvation, 
then he is responsible for our salvation/' 

"But we do not believe this, for we are a 

free moral agent, and are responsible ourselves 

for our actions and according to our acts will 

our reward or punishment be. For God to 

86 



Reason Not Superstition 

punish us in eternal punishment for that which 
he could have prevented us from doing is not 
reasonable/' 

" But we can do good or evil just as we feel 
inclined and God does not interfere, and is not 
responsible." 

"And you ignore the Bible also?" 

"No, we have the Bible warning us that 
sinners will be punished, and if we do not heed 
the warning, and neglect to control our pas- 
sions, we must abide by the consequences. 
We can only blame ourselves when on our 
death bed with deeds which are evil which 
accuse us. There are a great many people, 
and among them clergymen, w^ho do not 
believe that the Bible is God's word, but they 
are afraid if the truth were to be taught that 
the christian people would all become atheist, 
and retrograde into barbarity and heathenism, 
and commit all kinds of crimes." 

" That is it ; those who are dubious about the 
Bible are liable to commit all kinds of crimes." 

"That might be the case if they became 
atheists, but the truth does not make people 
atheists. If we are not believers in the Bible 
as God's word, we are, nevertheless, strong 
believers in a Supreme Ruler, in God. A God 
87 



Truth Not Legend, 

Who is just and will not permit the wicked to 
go unpunished. We cannot believe that a 
murderer can go unpunished just because he 
becomes very penitent and gets on his knees 
and pleads for pardon. He may escape human 
punishment, but God knows all things and 
he cannot escape his punishment." 

"I presume from your argument that the 
Church is a failure?" 

"Oh, no, the Church is not a failure. The 
Church as it is established today is doing a 
vast amount of good, and it has gone to a very 
great expense to establish itself on its present 
basis, and to attack this foundation and destroy 
it is an awful undertaking, but delicate as the 
attack may be, and fearful as it may appear, to 
rob the Church of the illusion of a sinner's 
Savior, of a human God, the truth must be 
told, the attack must be made, but not to 
destroy, only to reform. Those that do wrong 
must be warned that there is no pardon for 
criminals. As long as the people did not read 
and think for themselves, but depended on 
the clergy to do this for them, this system was 
all well enough, but since the laity reads and 
studies the Bible and other books for itself, 
they see the delusion." 
88 



Reason Not Superstition 

"The clergy is pledged to teach certain 
doctrines, and cannot deviate from them even 
if they realize the inconsistency for the de- 
nomination holds them to their pledge." 

" But the laity is now so universally educated, 
and able to read and think for themselves, that 
the truth only will be accepted; this forces the 
reformation. The conviction that criminals 
will be punished and not pardoned, arouses 
in us a desire to warn sinners, so that they 
may study over what they may contemplate 
doing. It gives us the courage to tell the 
truth even at the peril of destroying the 
foundation of the present Church." 

"To neglect to teach the erratic against 
false teaching and false doctrine, would be 
entirely wrong. To know the truth, but for 
fear of enmity of the present Church, to refuse 
to preach it, would be cowardly and wrong." 

" Don't you think God will hear and answer 
the truly penitent?" 

"If God did control the suppliant, and the 
entirely resigned and truly devoted Church 
member, some such being surely always found 
in each denomination, there could not be so 
many different denominations. There could 
not be so much animosity and hatred between 

89 



Truth Not Legend, 

them, calling each other heretics, and de- 
nouncing each other as teachers of false doc- 
trines. If God did control any of these 
Church members, and could control any 
truly penitent, it would not be possible for the 
Church members to have such savage hearts, 
and it would be very cruel of God to permit 
these strifes, if He could control Man and 
prevent them. For the good christian people 
of all denominations are continually suppli- 
cating Him for peace, and a cessation of strifes 
and wars, and He, a prayer hearing and a 
prayer answering, loving Father permitting 
them, would be incompatible, but the truth is, 
that our supplicating and praying will not 
induce God to take upon Himself the burden 
and responsibility to control us — we are not 
His slaves." 

"God made us with a conscience that 
tells us when we do wrong, and if we do 
not heed the warning we deserve to be 
punished." 

" It is true, God made us with a conscience, 
but we were made children, so when does the 
responsibility begin?" 

" The responsibility begins the moment that 
we know what is right and what is wrong; the 

90 



Reason Not Superstition 

moment conscience tells us a thing is wrong, 
when we do a wrong thing." 

"But the present Church teaches that we 
are born sinners, born in sin, and that nothing 
unclean can enter the Kingdom of Heaven." 

" Yes, I know, and isn't that silly talk? An 
innocent child, unable to talk, unable to con- 
ceive an evil act, unable to comprehend a 
wrong, the child knows nothing nor ever did 
anything, is a sinner in the sight of God. No, 
never." 

"The child is a sinner because the human 
family is sinful, but God does not hold the 
child responsible. The child will be saved." 

" I understand, it has no sins of its own, but 
some one else sinned and it must share a part 
of the blame; it had the misfortune to be born 
of parents belonging to a sinful human family. 
Could anything more ridiculous be con- 
ceived?" 

" The child is not held responsible for inbred 
sin, but it is evident that it has inherited a 
sinful nature for its inclinations are to do 
evil." 

"Nothing of the kind. If the child is 
properly trained it will not do evil deliberately. 
The innocent child does wrong but not that 

91 



Truth Not Legend, 

it realizes that it is doing harm; it does it 
innocently." 

" What kind of a child would that be that did 
everything just right?" 

" The examples and environments may lead a 
child to do evil and be aware that it is doing 
wrong. The child must be properly reared, 
but God is not cruel that He looks upon the 
erratic babe as a sinner, disabuse your mind 
of that/' 

At this time we went home. 

At the next discussion the foreman was again 
with us and said: — "We are all sinners and 
must pray daily for forgiveness." 

"How is that?" 

"If God hears our prayers and is able to 
lead us, He should lead us so that we would 
not do evil." 

"If He leads us, there surely ought to be 
some good, but they all confess that they must 
implore forgiveness daily." 

"The fact is, He does not lead us." 

"And many forget as soon as they are 
outside of the Church, that the all-seeing 
eye of God is above them, and indulge in all 
kinds of excesses, and in vulgarity and 
brutality. They go to Church and profess 
92 



Reason Not Superstition 

to worship God, but have no reverence for 
God." 

"Heathens of this class are the most dif- 
ficult to convert/' 

"Our religion should be such, that we would 
render to God the same service, of a right life, 
as we expect our fellow men to do in dealing 
with us, to deal justly, to render to us justice. 
The conception of God is that He is in Church, 
and if the ceremonies there are performed all 
right, He is satisfied. Just think of the small 
conception of God, or make it, notice the small 
God some people have." 

"The poor, innocent infant babe cannot go 
to Heaven unless it has been sprinkled with 
water by some prelate. What a small con- 
ception of God, to think that He was so ab- 
surd as to exclude from Heaven any one unless 
baptized, but much more so the innocent 
infant. To imagine that it required water 
to be dipped on its head by some prelate, or 
our kind Heavenly Father, Who is no respector 
of persons, will give it over to Satan to be 
cast into the fiery furnace forever. That is 
only a foolish notion. And to think some of our 
best educated people, preach for denomina- 
tions whose members claim this to be a fact." 
93 



Truth Not Legend, 

"I admire your courage in expressing your 
convictions. You are rather severe on the 
preachers, but I am convinced that you mean 
it for the good of the people." 

" Yes, sir! I am trying to teach the people 
the truth. Notice the conception that the 
most people must have of God, by their actions, 
not by profession, and this they must have 
learned from their clergy. Their little God 
is in the Church watching the ceremonies; 
if these are performed all right, He is satisfied. 
Just think of the small God they have, the 
Jews as well as the christians. Such a small 
God some people have, that He will be of- 
fended if they eat certain things on certain days. 
It is a sin to eat certain meats at any time. 
Foolishness ! Some people will have the Ruler 
of the Universe to be so small that He will 
bar us from Heaven if we make the mistake 
of observing the wrong day for Sabbath wor- 
ship. God will be offended if we wear certain 
kind of apparel, or if we shave, or if we do not 
shave. Only simple people can harbor such 
thoughts. Then some of these Church mem- 
bers want to laugh at the Chinese queue and 
wide sleeves required by their gods. I know 
such foolish things are done and believed and 

94 



Reason Not Superstition 

seem to be too absurd for credulity, but they 
infer from what they read in the Bible that 
they must do so. But some of the important 
things in the Bible they neglect to observe, 
things that our conscience tells us should be 
observed/ ' 

"The Bible is what the conscience of those 
men that wrote it, revealed to them as being 
God's will, and this is just what our conscience 
reveals to us that it is. I cannot believe that 
it was to them God's word. Their conscience 
convictions combined with ours should impress 
us with the importance, the necessity of having 
Churches, places of worship. We can be 
glad that we have the Bible and we should 
study it and compare it with our own conscious 
convictions. It should be sufficient to deter 
us from doing evil, and the object of the Church 
should be to teach and preach, warning the 
erratic of the danger of incurring the dis- 
pleasure of our Heavenly Father. The Church 
should get over the old barbaric idea that God 
is like the despotic monarch, that He required 
a bloody sacrifice before relenting, and adopt 
the more intelligent idea that He will permit 
no evil doing." 

"The barbaric heathen sacrificed animals 

95 



Truth Not Legend 

and sometimes human beings to appease their 
offended gods. The Jews were continually 
sacrificing cattle to gain the favor and blessings 
of God. Their feasts were noted for the amount 
of cattle slain and offered, but that an enlight- 
ened and civilized people, calling themselves 
christians, should teach that God demanded 
blood, demanded a life as an atonement for 
sins, is entirely too absurd for credulity. That 
God, seeing the blood of His own Son, will 
pardon the criminal for His Child's sake, does 
not belong to an enlightened and civilized 
age. Civilization could not tolerate such 
bloody deeds by its Monarch, much less will a 
kind Father, our Heavenly Father, desire such 
a thing. It is an entirely too low a conception 
of God, to think that we could by bloody 
sacrifice influence the great Ruler of the Uni- 
verse." 

The foreman here interrupted the speaker 
saying: — " Come, boys, the car is waiting." 



96 



CHAPTER XI 

At our next meeting that we discussed this 
subject the foreman was with us again. He 
started out by saying: — "You say future 
reward and future punishment awaits us. Do 
you think God will deliver us into the hands of 
the devil to torment us in Hell-fire throughout 
all Eternity?" 

"No, certainly not, and what kind of a 
being is the devil anyhow? I do not believe 
in a devil. Future punishment does not 
imply just exactly punishment after death, 
and surely not in death, yet it may mean in a 
future life. The same with Heaven; the dead 
cannot enjoy Heaven, and the Kingdom of 
Heaven must begin in this life according to the 
parables of Jesus, and according to common 
sense. The sower did not sow after death, 
the tares were not sown after death, the harvest 
did not come after death, the pearl of great 
price was not found after death, the same with 
the treasures in the field, it was not found and 
the field bought after death. We may have 
97 



Truth Not Legend, 

Heaven in a future life, but not in death, and we 
surely can have Heaven to begin in this life. 
The Heaven that some people expect to enter 
after death is another absurdity. A City 
having walls of stone/jasper-stone walls, pearly 
gates and golden streets; this implies houses, 
and a river running through it with trees on 
either side, and yet on no planet or star, no 
foundation. This City has a throne, and God 
sits on the Throne, and Jesus on His right hand 
— two persons. How many billions of people 
have already died is hard to say, and how many 
more will die before the end of the world is hard 
to say, but surely the City must be very 
enormous, unless only one sect is permitted to 
enter; in that case, the other place must be 
enormously big." 

"And how long would such a place be 
Heaven to us? Such a Heaven is the con- 
ception of the continually persecuted. The 
Jews, having been robbed of country and 
freedom, expected that a just God would give 
His people a place free of torment and per- 
secution. The Church has adopted this idea, 
and each denomination assures its members 
that they, if they lead a righteous life, will 
ultimately occupy the Citv." 
98 * 



Reason Not Superstition 

"But the Church with its sacred songs, 
and moral instructions, rouses in us the 
Divine/ ' 

"I cannot understand you; one time you 
condemn the present Church and directly you 
laud it." 

"I have never condemned the Church, but 
I say it teaches some things that are not true. 
If we had never had the present Church with 
its moral training and sacred music and its 
associating for mutual benefit, rendering service 
to God as it understood it, civilization would 
be almost unknown. It is this close intimacy, 
and intermingling with each other, this learning 
of each other, as much as religion, that has 
advanced civilization. " 

" But religion led to associating." 

"It is these bands of brotherhood, these 
Church denominations with all their auxiliary 
bands, and all other societies that have been 
great factors in advancing civilization." 

"The beautiful sacred songs, expressing 
heroic sacrifice for fellow man and love and 
fealty to God, appeal to us for kindness toward 
each other." 

" Those songs, in which we express the heroic 
efforts of the Church to enlighten and teach the 
99 



Truth Not Legend, 

heathen and liberate the slave, and rescue the 
perishing, and alleviate the pains and suffering 
of the sick and poverty stricken, move us to 
deeds of kindness. The savage, cruel nature 
cannot remain in the heart of the man that is 
continually under the influence of the sweet 
music of the Church. It reveals to us God's 
love toward us in creating us with the mental 
capacity to produce such sweet music, and the 
many wonderful musical instruments/' 

"It is therefore evident that even if the 
Church has taught some things that cannot 
possibly be truth, it certainly has done a most 
wonderful amount of good. We see God's 
hand in leading us by certain laws of nature, 
through the all different forms of worship from 
the savage to the civilized, from idol worship to 
Christianity. But while I cannot understand 
how we can consistently ask God to help us 
and to lead us, I do think it is our duty to 
acknowledge His goodness and thank Him for 
His many blessings. We certainly are de- 
pendent on Him for everything. If He would 
command nature to cease in any of its functions 
it would be fatal to us." 

"Is it not our duty, then, to ask Him to 
protect us?" 

100 



Reason Not Superstition 

" I do not think that is necessary. He will 
always protect His own creatures." 

"Do you think man could do as he 
pleased even if God did not wish him to do 
so?" 

" God is almighty and could stop us when we 
do wrong, but He does not do so." 

" The Man that had a legion of demon-devils. 
Was he in the hands of the devil of his own free 
will?" 

"He certainly was, but when the demons 
left the man and entered the herd of swine, and 
the swine ran into the water and were drowned, 
the demons were left to enter into some other 
individual again, for surely they were not 
drowned. This is just another absurd story. 
There is no devil. If that story were a fact, 
it would not have left the demons to do evil 
again. If Jesus had been the Creator of all 
things, Satan included, He could also be the 
destroyer of all things, including Satan. In 
that case Satan, or the demons, would have 
been entirely destroyed and not permitted to 
do evil again." 

" And when we read the story of how Satan 
led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, we 
must confess that those two stories do not 
101 



Truth Not Legend 

agree. Satan driven by Jesus, Jesus led by- 
Satan. Certainly somewhat confusing." 

" These stories are indeed perplexing and lead 
me to look at it as you do. If the Bible really 
was God's word, it would not have any dif- 
ficulties for us to understand." 



102 



CHAPTER XII 

The next time the subject was broached the 
young miner said: — "Let me show you the 
inconsistency of prayer. Man prays for God's 
help, and God will help Him. The resolution 
to ask God to assist him to become good he 
must form of his own free will, for he is a free 
agent and God does not assist him until he 
expresses a desire to have God's assistance. 
But the very moment that the resolution is 
conceived in the mind, and the desire expressed, 
God assists him." 

" Before the resolution was formed he was a 
sinner, for by nature we are all sinners, we are 
born sinners. He was therefore in Satan's 
service and under his control." 

"No, he wasn't under Satan's control or 
Satan would not have permitted him to form 
the resolution to be good." 

" Yes, he must have been under his control, 

but he always retains the power to leave the 

service of Satan. That is, Satan's control 

over him is so feeble that Satan can do nothing 

103 



Truth Not Legend, 

with him unless he is willing. Really, Satan 
has no control over him at all, only just what 
he is willing to yield to him. Satan can't 
compel him to do anything unless he is willing. 
Satan can only help him when he is willing. 
He can never surrender his freedom to Satan. 
Man is always a free agent. If he could sur- 
render his freedom to Satan he would forever 
after be in Satan's control, and could never 
leave his service. He was, therefore, not under 
Satan's control when he formed the resolution 
to serve God." 

"I understand the difficulty you have placed 
Man in by your argument. I must admit it 
must be impossible for either God or Satan to 
have control of Man." 

" Man can do as he pleases in the choice of a 
Master. No, he is a free agent and cannot sur- 
render to any Master. If after he has prayed to 
God for help, and He has answered His prayer 
for help, and has taken possession of him, and 
has him in His control, and he can then turn 
away again at his pleasure, he never was in 
God's control; God never answered his prayer." 

u But such a thing as Satan does not exist." 

" We can make ourselves devils if we choose. 
Or we can make ourselves saints if we choose. 
104 



Reason Not Superstition 

It is all in our own hands — we are our own 
Masters." 

a So you hold that our prayers for help avail 
us nothing?" 

" God has made us free agents and He does 
not interfere with our freedom, implore we ever 
so much. It is our duty to control ourselves, 
and if we neglect to do so, and displease our 
Heavenly Father, He is justified in punishing 
us, just as we are justified to punish our children 
when they do wrong." 

" It is cowardly to shirk our duty." 

"Another absurdity is the temptation of 
Jesus by Satan, in the wilderness. Jesus, one 
of the Triune God, the Creator, is tempted by 
one of His own creatures. Would God permit 
that? The Almighty or was it the human, 
anyway, it was Jesus, is tempted, and what 
was it for? It seems just as silly an expression 
as could be framed or found in the Bible. If 
He was tempted to reveal to Him to what 
temptations the human family was subject, it 
was a failure, for the Almighty God knew that 
from eternity, for He is omniscient, and the 
human had no need of knowing it, for the 
prayers are to the Divine." 

"I understand. It certainly was a strange 

105 



Truth Not Legend, 

thing to assert and most difficult to explain. 
What is your opinion of it?" 

" It is my opinion that the writers expected 
it would help the poor fallen sinner to a stronger 
faith in a merciful Savior, Who knew the temp- 
tations that led him to fall." 

"That is it, and is that not right?" 
"No, that is a false hope. We have no 
right to sin. We have no right to commit 
crime, and expect pardon. The Bible contains 
errors, but it contains the opinions or the con- 
scious convictions of the writers, and much of 
it coincides with our convictions." 

"Does not the Koran do the same thing?" 
"The Koran is the opinion of a different 
class of people but in many points it coin- 
cides with our opinion. All those so-called 
sacred writings contain some good instructions 
and have been stepping stones in our upward 
progress from darkness into light. But they 
all have assertions and requirements that can 
not be from God, just the same as the Bible. 
Here is another absurdity about the temptation. 
It reads: — 'Satan led Jesus/ In that case it 
must have been the human, not the Divine 
Jesus he led. And Jesus became hungry, He 
fed four thousand, having nothing wherewith 

106 



Reason Not Superstition 

to do it, could he not have fed Himself? In 
this case it must have been the human Jesus. 
The Divine could help Himself. But forty 
days is too long a fast for the human; it must 
have been the Divine that fasted. But God 
never gets hungry ; it must therefore have been 
the human. This is perplexing. We are not 
positive that His hunger was appeased then, 
but He, being God, could satisfy Himself." 

" But just now Satan sets Him on a pinnacle 
of the Temple, not the Divine, but the human 
Jesus. Why the Divine does not resist this, 
is hard to say." 

" This certainly is a very perplexing question, 
and most difficult to understand. In con- 
sideration of these conditions, might it not 
perhaps be better not to study the Bible?" 

"Oh, yes, we should study it to learn what 
the opinion of those people of that early time 
was, but not as God's word. If God had ever 
spoken to Man, He would have made it so 
plain that there could not be the least doubt 
about his wishes, and our duty toward Him." 

"But after all, God is the Supreme Ruler." 

" Everything is just as He intended it should 
be, and not as some would have us believe, that 
the devil was able to frustrate God's plans and 
107 



Truth Not Legend, 

designs. There is no devil or Satan. In 
religion, each one should strive to know just 
what God desires of him. It is too vital a 
question to neglect to study. We cannot 
afford to depend on what others say. In- 
struction is all well enough and is very neces- 
sary, but it is our duty in this matter to search 
and study so as to learn if the instructions we 
are receiving are trustworthy." 

" Are we doing our duty toward our Maker? 
Does our conscience approve of the way we 
are living? Are we doing our duty toward 
ourselves ?" 

"The whole Universe is God's word. All 
nature proclaims and reveals to us a Creator, 
or a first Cause — God. Everything is perfect 
in God's creation; the movements of the 
planets are harmonious and exact to the 
second; the earth revolves in exactly the same 
time today as it did yesterday, nor does it 
vary any in a thousand years; all proclaiming 
an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent 
Supreme Ruler. All God's works are perfect, 
but the Bible is not, and therefore cannot be 
His work." 

"Are there more inaccuracies that you can 
mention?" 

108 



Reason Not Superstition 

"The barren fig tree is another, and there 
are many others. We are told that Jesus — 
God — in not finding figs on the tree, blasts it, 
but if he really was hungry it would have been 
just as easy for Him to cause the tree to be 
loaded with ripe figs, and in that way have some 
to eat for Himself and many others that might 
be hungry and passing by the tree." 

" The expression makes it appear as if Jesus 
had been offended and in His vindictiveness 
blasted the tree, a thing that we cannot con- 
ceive of Jesus, either Divine or human. " 

"That is true; it does not seem to have been 
the spirit in which He did things." 

" No, it was not, it was contrary to what He 
was trying to impress upon Nicodemus when 
He said: — 'You must be born again'." 

At this point we went home, and when we 
met again to speak on this subject he said: — 
"The strange thing that happened in the case 
of the blasted fig tree was Jesus the human 
became hungry, and finding no figs on the tree, 
Jesus the Divine — God — comes to His assis- 
tance to get satisfaction out of the failure of 
the tree in not supplying the want." 

u Why are these stories, which are asserted to 
be God's word, God's laws by which we are to 
109 



Truth Not Legend, 

govern our lives in order to please Him, so 
imprefect that we continually commit the 
great crime of doubting them to be such? If 
it were God's word, if God spoke them through 
the writers, then they should be so plain and 
comprehensive that the fool could not err, but 
would understand and not doubt. " 

" That is a fact, but we have some more such 
stories that seem strange. Jesus the Divine 
calms the storm and walks on the water, as- 
sisting Peter to do the same, but soon becomes 
hungry and asks His disciples, 'Have you any- 
thing to eat?' Here again we have the two, 
the Divine and the human in the same body, 
making use of the different organs and mem- 
bers of the body, so that it is most difficult to 
say which controled it. When John was be- 
headed, Jesus was afraid of his safety. God 
afraid of Man. The fish in the water obey 
Him and fill the net until it is overloaded, but 
He fears the people and does not remain in 
Galilee. Jesus could turn water into wine, or 
grape juice, but if Jesus had been indeed the 
all knowing God He would not have stirred up 
such a controversy as this wine making has 
done/' 

" Jesus could heal all manner of diseases, 
110 



Reason Not Superstition 

and had a wonderful power over Men, swaying 
them to do just what he desired them to do, 
without even speaking to them; as an instance 
is the man that gave his ass to the disciples of 
Jesus for Him to ride into Jerusalem, but 
He could not change the minds of Judas 
Tscariot and those Jews that sought to kill 
Him." 

"I admit the Bible is full of such miracles, 
the Old as well as the New Testament, that 
seem improbable. " 

"Yes, in the Old Testament we have the 
burning bush, the smitten rock, the indestruc- 
tible apparel, the darning of the water of the 
Jordan to permit the Israelites to pass over, 
the fall of Jerico and many more." 

" If God is the same yesterday, to-day, and 
forevermore, they cannot be true or miracles 
would happen to-day as they did then." 

"If such things had occurred, as the water 
claming up in the Jordan Valley without any 
visible obstruction to keep the water back, it 
would never have been forgotten; all the 
people would have known about it : throughout 
all Europe and Asia, it would have been known. 
But as it is, only the Bible narrates the strange 
phenomena. If Jesus was God and could 
111 



Truth Not Legend, 

restore Lazarus to life after the process of 
decay had so far advanced that an offensive 
odor was perceptible, when the tomb was 
opened, and if He could bring Himself to life 
again, it is not reasonable to think that He 
could not prevent the mob from crucifying the 
human body." 

"But the crucifixion was not a sacrifice if 
the Divine did not suffer." 

"The Divine Savior must suffer to make 
Him compassionate toward the sinner." 

"But how could the Divine suffer in the 
crucifixion?" 

"Or was the crucifixion necessary even if 
the Divine did suffer?" 

"The Divine or God, could save the sinner 
without such a horrible spectacle." 

"It goes to prove that He never was God, 
and the narrative is only a myth like all 
other strange legends." 

"I have no doubt that Jesus was crucified 
for having expressed His convictions about 
the sinful licentiousness and immoral lives of 
His Jewish brethren." 

"There is nothing more ennobling than to 
read the stories of the self-sacrificing and 
heroism of some of the Bible characters." 
112 



Reason Not Superstition 

"You do not think that reading the Bible 
would be harmful?" 

" Reading the Bible may be harmful to the 
child, but never to the intelligent adult." 

"It is the humanity taught in the New 
Testament that makes the christian religion 
thejmost desirable of all forms of worship. 
Not only should we perpetuate this noble 
work, but we should seek still higher planes of 
humanity and brotherly love. We cannot dis- 
card the Bible but must ever have it as a guide, 
and we must follow the examples of its good 
men as they are given to us in the Bible. We 
must lead a Christ-like life in order to escape 
future punishment." 

"You might as well accept everything as 
the church has it now, if you want to insist on a 
similar life." 

"No, indeed, the present Church preaches 
pardon for sins; the new Church will insist on a 
pure life." 

At this time we left for home. 



113 



CHAPTER XIII 

At our next discussion I put this question :- 
"What in your opinion was the object Jesus 
had in view?" 

"Jesus was a self-appointed reformer. His 
object was to establish a universal brotherhood 
and banish barbarity, immorality and all 
other evils. But Jesus was not God manifested 
in the flesh as some would have us believe." 

" If God had desired at any time to become 
visible, or assume a human body, He could 
not have conceived a more foolish way to do it 
than to be born of a woman. He that could 
call the planets into being out of chaos, could 
place himself as a visible being on a cloud or at 
midday appear in the bright, clear sky as a 
Man." 

"Nothing is impossible with God. Can an 
intelligent man imagine anything more incon- 
sistent than God the Almighty as a helpless 
child?" 

"But those licentious Jews imagined that 
114 



Reason Not Superstition 

God must be like they were and therefore have 
a woman and child/ ' 

"It seems very strange that intelligent 
people could imagine that God could possess 
such human attributes, natures, passions or 
desires for the opposite sex. But they were 
not intelligent enough to comprehend the 
difficulty this put them in when it came to 
explain all about this mystery." 

" They were aware that if Jesus was to be only 
a Son of God, He would not be much different 
from any other human being. He must be 
much more; He must have a share in the 
government of the universe. He must be 
more than God's servant for we all are, or 
ought to be His servants. So He is proclaimed 
as one of the Triune God, the Son of God, but 
co-eternal with God, if that can be possible. 
He was not only co -existent with God, but 
He was the Creator of all things, and will be 
the final Judge of the human family." 

"That is the doctrine of the Church, but I 
must confess it is very perplexing to me." 

"The idea that Jesus was the Creator and 
will be the final Judge gives Jesus very great 
power. He becomes everything to us." 

"And again, by His death He became our 
115 



Truth Not Legend, 

Redeemer, so that we are not so much respon- 
sible to God as to Jesus." 

" It is this, that in some instances He is God 
and in others He is the Son of God, and in 
others He is only a human being that per- 
plexes me." 

" I know, but the Bible teaches it that way, 
and the Church prohibits its members from 
investigating. To say that the people of this 
age have not advanced far enough in intelli- 
gence to know that it is all myth, would be 
placing a very poor opinion on their intelli- 
gence. It would be an insult to our educators 
and placing our education at a very low 
rate." 

"But the worst is, that the Church often, in 
the fear of losing its hold upon the people, 
stands in the way of progress. It proclaims 
that it is a sacrilege to doubt the word of God. 
But in spite of the Church and what it teaches, 
the people are becoming more enlightened 
every day, and many have learned to know the 
truth." * 

"If faith in an atonement made for us by 

Jesus, if faith in the power of Jesus, if faith 

is the essential to our salvation, then faith in a 

conditional pardon offered by God to repenting 

116 



Reason Not Superstition 

sinners should also be sufficient, without the 
atonement of Jesus/ ' 

11 But faith is not the essential, but a correct 
life." 

" Our eternal destiny is entirely in our own 
hands, and no one can rob us of it; no one can 
hinder us from going to God; and no one can 
do it for us. We must satisfy our own con- 
science by our own mode of life, and by our 
mode of worship. The essential is a pure life, 
sincerity, a pure motive, and a kind heart, 
honesty and integrity." 

" Our religion should seek to guard and pro- 
tect the child. Bringing children into the 
world that are deformed, idiotic, weaklings 
and fit for the grave only is one of the greatest 
sins. Such children can only be born of weak 
parents, made so by self -abuse or by poverty, 
which is abuse by others. Why man should be 
so desperately wicked is to us inexplicable, 
but it is very clear that religion is intended to 
rectify and prevent such evils. A religion 
that does not seek to banish such evils is not 
Christianity. Teach the child in the way it 
should go and insist that it does go in that way, 
and as an adult it will practise what it has 
been taught. True religion is embraced by a 
117 



Truth Not Legend, 

person only when he or she resolves in his or 
her heart and carries the resolution into effect, 
that he or she will be his or her brother's 
keeper. To do this, requires that we make 
every effort to have our neighbors' children 
educated. Only the educated and skilled can 
help themselves.' ' 

"Is it just that I pay tax to educate my 
neighbor's child?" 

11 Universal education benefits all. If we 
desire to live in an intelligent community, we 
must be willing to help each poor child to be- 
come intelligent." 

"Most of our criminals are such because 
they cannot help themselves; they lack 
education or are not skilled in doing that 
which has fallen to their lot to do. They 
need help." 

" When once a people is educated sufficiently 
to know that it is a crime to make criminals 
out of its young people, it will turn and help 
all its young people to an education and to 
to an ability to help themselves. But at 
present, instead of educating the young people 
how to take care of themselves and make an 
honest living, we teach them by our examples 
that crime is not wrong." 

118 



Reason Not Superstition 

" Very often our young people are forced to 
remain ignorant by poverty." 

"The parents are so pauperized that the 
children are compelled to stop school in order 
to assist the parents to gain a living. We 
have our prisons full of Church members, not 
christians, who are there for all kind of crimes 
and that will attend Church again as soon as 
they are released, and that will be in good 
standing the same as before the crime was 
committed that sent them to jail. The 
Church will re-instate them but not reform 
them." 

"Some Churches may require some penance 
to obtain pardon, but no effort will be made to 
help them to reform and to be able to live 
right. Many, as soon as they have made it all 
right by going to Church a few times, are 
ready to commit the next crime, and another 
term in jail. Those who are in prison for life 
or for such terms that they have no hope of 
ever getting out, send for their pastors to 
prepare them for Heaven." 

"What a horrible influence on our children, 
to read in the paper how the murderer was in 
prayer with his pastor all night just before 
his doom, and now he professes to realize that 

119 



Truth Not Legend, 

God for Jesus sake has pardoned him, and now 
he is sure of going to Heaven/ ' 

"In many instances the inhumanity of the 
Church member is the indirect cause of crime. 
Heathenism would often be preferable to such 
Christianity. A Christianity that breeds rob- 
bers and pauperizes certain classes to enrich 
other classes, and that is the indirect cause of 
many crimes, is a menace to civilization/ ' 

"We look at such criminals and recognize 
that they are human, and if they are human 
they are our kin, our brothers and if they are 
our brothers, we are their keepers, responsible 
for their waywardness/' 

" It rests with the Church, with the christians 
who should love his neighbor as himself, to 
help his neighbor before he is by neglect driven 
into crime/' 

"I sometimes think that perhaps in many 
cases it would perhaps be better if they were 
still barbarians/' 

" They might be filthy then, but they would 
at least have an equal opportunity for self- 
support." 

" Imagine a lot of vagrants or some families 
in the slums, and let us be honest about it, 
and say the productions of christian civilization, 
120 



Reason Not Superstition 

it cannot possibly be enlightened civilization. 
A condition that possesses all the unfathomable 
degradation of vagrantism, a brutalized hu- 
manity so disgusting that it is difficult to find 
adequate language to describe it is not civili- 
zation. Or, if we call that civilization which 
but divides the human family into two classes, 
the one of opulence and respectability and the 
other of pauperism and degradation, our 
civilization and our Christianity are an evil, 
and worse than savagery. If such is christian 
civilization, it should be suppressed for on 
examining both classes, we find they are inhu- 
man and brutal. The one class is brutal in 
habits and the other in inhumanity, so that it is 
difficult to say which is the worse/' 

"The new religion will rectify all this. It 
will elevate the pauper to the position of a 
brother where he belongs; in fact it will educate 
and assist the young people so that they become 
useful citizens able to help themselves, and not 
permit them to fall. Poverty and ignorance 
will be banished and every man will be made a 
respectable and useful citizen if possible. " 

At this time the talk was ended by the car 
that took us to the surface. 

It was only a few days after this that there 

121 



Truth Not Legend, 

was an accident in our young friend's 
breast. 

This time it was himself that was injured by 
a fall of coal. His leg was badly fractured. 
Sympathetic friends quickly gathered and in a 
very short time he was hoisted to the surface, 
and quickly removed to his home. 

The doctor was there at the same time and 
soon had the fracture reduced and properly 
bandaged and he was made as comfortable as 
possible. As soon as the doctor had finished, 
he started to hunt up the "buddy" and when 
he found him he said to him: — "I have put 
that leg in good shape, and in six or eight weeks 
it will again perform its duties. But it was 
not the leg of a man but that of a woman that 
I bandaged." The injured one heard what he 
said and quickly called him back but all in the 
house gathered to hear what was said. 

" Let me explain this matter. It is true 
what the doctor says, I am a woman, and since 
you all have heard what was said, I would be 
very, very much pleased to have some one take 
down my statement and have it published in 
the newspapers so that the world will know the 
truth and can judge me for itself. This is the 
result of the present condition of what we are 

122 



Reason Not Superstition 

pleased to call Christianity. We, my husband 
and myself, both came from England, I, the 
daughter of wealthy Catholic parents, well 
educated, such education as the church pre- 
scribes, and furnishes, my husband also of well- 
to-do parents, well educated, but Protestant 
and bitter against the bigoted Catholics. This 
condition of Christianity that professes to 
'Love your neighbor as yourself/ had compelled 
us to forsake home and parents and comfort, 
and become almost outcasts to become man 
and wife. We were determined that no such 
superstition and ignorance should keep us from 
being married. It was not a very agreeable 
thing for me to do to assume the role of miner, 
but I was determined that we should rise 
above the pauper class. We laid by sufficient 
to live more respectable in the future. And 
now, before I leave you my friends, for you 
know I can never meet you again in the mine, 
I desire to reiterate that I believe that the 
criminal will, in all cases, be punished and 
never pardoned. We are going away to where 
we are not known and forget this mode of 
life/' 

One of the miners said: — "It is the unani- 
mous wish of all here that you remain here as 
123 



Truth Not Legend 

our teacher; you shall have adequate remun- 
eration." 

"I could not face the people, but I will 
write for your benefit a long address and have it 
published for your benefit, so farewell." 

The address appeared in the paper, but they 
disappeared and were never heard of after. 

Thus in the very life of this helper friend of 
this mining community was discovered the 
greatest proof of her sincerity, the strongest 
argument upholding the doctrines she exposed, 
and a convincing illustration of the power of a 
bigoted Church to make for sorrow instead of 
joy. And we, who have never heard her 
voice, who have never felt the inspiration of 
her presence, may yet find in her recorded 
truths, a clearer and more helpful under- 
standing of what the coming Christianity will 
be. 

END 



124 



OCT 3 1912 



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